The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Murray struggles in gruelling GB victory
DAVIS CUP: Doubles pairing win deciding rubber after Scot feels pace
Andy Murray admitted he is not as fit as he should be after performing his latest act of escapology in Great Britain’s gruelling Davis Cup victory over the Netherlands in Madrid.
Murray’s 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 7-6 (7-5) win against 179th-ranked Tallon Griekspoor was the sort of comeback for which he has become famous.
Murray was 4-1 down in the deciding set and then in the same position in the tie-break but conjured up some remarkable defence to claw his way to victory in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
Dan Evans was beaten 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 by Robin Haase in the second rubber but Jamie Murray and debutant Neal Skupski won the tie, which lasted close to nine hours, with a 6-4 7-6 (8-6) victory over Wesley Koolhof and Jean-Julien Rojer in the deciding doubles.
Victory over Kazakhstan today would put Britain through to the quarter-finals in the new-look competition.
Griekspoor, 23, played well above his ranking but Murray was sluggish throughout, the sharp movement that was evident in his brilliant title victory in Antwerp a month ago sorely lacking.
The Scot admitted last week that he had put on a few pounds in the weeks since as the arrival of his son Teddy took his focus away from the court.
“I told you guys I wasn’t feeling in the best shape coming in, and it showed a little bit in the match,” he said.
“The weight and things like that, that’s my fault. I won’t put myself in that position again.
“If you’re weighing four or five kilos more than you’re used to, that is probably going to affect how you feel moving around the court.”
Murray looked exhausted at the end, while he also appeared to be struggling with a cold, so there is every chance that Kyle Edmund will play today instead.
He was not helped by the Netherlands springing a surprise by selecting Griekspoor instead of Botic Van De Zandschulp.
“He played brilliant,” said the Scot. “I was lucky at the end of the match. He deserved to win.
“It is about finding a way to win, and I did that today. And I’m proud of myself because it would have been easy to have lost that.”
British number one Evans was a set and a break up and served for the match at 5-4 in the second set only for Haase, a former top-40 player currently ranked 163, to mount a fightback.
That put the pressure on Jamie Murray and Skupski, who have formed an encouraging partnership since linking up in June.
Jamie Murray said: “We did really well to win today. It was a really tough match against a really good doubles team.
“Obviously Evo (Evans) played a really good match, got himself into a position to win. We were like: ‘OK, it’s going to be 2-0’, our match doesn’t maybe have the same pressure, and then an hour later we were playing and it all comes down to that match.
“You feel: ‘OK, on the first day we could maybe be out of the competition’. So I think we did a great job to stay focused and play to a level that we did. And of course, for Neal to do that in his debut I think was really impressive.”