Worth the weight/murray bemoans fitness
● Classic Murray before Jamie and Skupski seal win over Netherlands
A contrite Andy Murray admitted he is not as fit as he should be after performing his latest act of escapology in Great Britain’s Davis Cup clash with the Netherlands in Madrid.
Murray’s 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (5) win against 179thranked 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.
What his heroics could not mask, though, was
It was not a classic but it was classic Andy Murray. As only he can, he managed to win a match that by rights he should have lost and so chalked up Britain’s first point at the Davis Cup finals in Madrid.
Even Murray admitted that he had no place beating Tallon Griekspoor, the world No.179 from the Netherlands, yesterday and yet he did 6-7, 6-4, 7-6.
The 23-year-old from Haarlem has only ever won two tour level matches in his life, but they were good ones: he beat Stan Wawrinka in Rotterdam last year and Karen Khachanov in the same place this year. And, as he peppered Murray with his thumping serve and walloping forehand, it was clear that the Scot was in for a long morning.
Everything seemed to have conspired against the Scot. He thought he would be playing the wonderfully named Botic Van de Zandschulp, the Dutch No.3, and had prepared accordingly (Griekspoor was supposed to be struggling with an ankle injury). But, when the teamsheet was published an hour before Murray’s match started, there was Griekspoor’sname,leavingthe British camp to do some lastminute cramming.
Add to that the fact that Murray has a cold and is still trying to shed the extra weight he gained during his time off after winning the Antwerp trophy and he was not feeling at his sparkling best before, during or after the match.
“I am obviously relieved just now,” he said. “I don’t think I deserved to win that match. I mean fought extremely hard at the end. He was dictating a lot of the points. I thought he served amazing. I just fought hard, tried to get one extra ball back at the end. I made a great scramble at 4-1 in the tie-break, and that was enough to turn it my way.
“I knew going into the match that I didn’t feel good, so I was nervous this morning beforehand. And when you’ve played for 14 years on the tour, I know how this sport works. It’s really difficult. Some guys in Davis Cup can step up and play well.”
Murray was two points from defeat at 5-4 down in the third set, he was 4-1 down in the third set tiebreak and yet, calling on all his experience and cussed refusal to give in no matter what, he came away with the win. It is just what Murray does.
“When you’re playing really well and stuff, tennis can be
TOUGH TEST
“It is about finding a waytowin,andidid. I’m proud of myself because it would have been easy to have lost”
ANDY MURRAY
quite straightforward,” Murray said. “But going into a match where you don’t know your opponent really, and I wasn’t feeling particularly good going into the match, either [it’s not so straight forward]. But 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.”
Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski won a nail-biter of a second set tiebreak to win the tie for Britain 2-1. They beat
Wesley Koolhof and John-julien Rojer 6-4, 7-6 to claim the winning point after Dan Evans had lost 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 to Robin Haase.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic helped Serbia make a fast start to their campaign with victory over Japan. The world No 2 was unfazed by a sparse crowd on the central court at the Caja Magica and raced to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Yoshihito Nishioka.
That secured the most comfortable of victories after Filip Krajinovic had earlier beaten Yuichi Sugita 6-2, 6-4, with the doubles team of Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki completing a 3-0 whitewash.
Afterwards, Djokovic criticised the situation that emerged on Tuesday when Canada were allowed to forfeit their doubles rubber against the USA having already won both singles matches.
That put the Canadians through to the quarter-finals but, with the two best-placed runners-up across the six groups progressing to the last eight, the 6-0, 6-0 win awarded to the US could help them in comparison to other teams.
Djokovic said: “That shouldn’t be allowed. That 6-0, 6-0 might make a big difference in the calculations. So I don’t think that’s fair. Everyone should be obliged to come out and play.”
The International Tennis Federation said that Canada were permitted to not play because three of their four players were unfit. Teams are allowed five players but Canada chose not to replace Milos Raonic when he pulled out injured.
Germany surprisingly beat Argentina to give themselves a great chance of making the quarter-finals. Philipp Kohlschreiber recovered from a set down to beat Guido Pella 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Jan-lennard Struff was a 6-3, 7-6 (8) winner over Diego Schwartzman.