I didn’t take this lightly
But Andy makes heavy weather of Dutch
ANDY MURRAY claimed GB had not taken the Netherlands lightly after admitting he was still too heavy at the Davis Cup finals. Leon Smith’s British side squeezed to victory over the world No.19 nation thanks to a narrow win in the decisive doubles. British No.1 Dan Evans was flattened by Holland’s Robin Haase. And Andy Murray said he’d deserved to lose to world No.179 Tallon Griekspoor before mounting a fightback to win in three sets. The Olympic champion then revealed he had not prepared to face the Dutch No.2 – and said he was still carrying extra baggage from celebrating his Antwerp title and the recent birth of his third child Teddy. Andy said: “The weight, that’s my fault. 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 and stuff. So I need to do better with that. “I’ll make sure when I do have breaks I’m more careful with what I’m eating. When I was 25 it was quite easy.” With the Great Britain team also dropping in lines from
BY NEIL McLEMAN IN MADRID
Frozen into the pre-tournament press conference, they did not appear to be taking the Dutch too seriously. And they just got away with it.
Murray added: “I wouldn’t think that was the case, I was taking the match very seriously.
“When you have a child maybe that becomes your priority for a period of time and maybe I could have got on the practice courts sooner.
“I also had an issue with my elbow. But no, I wouldn’t say I’ve taken the first match lightly.”
But GB, who went on a tour of the Bernebeu Stadium this week, had prepared Murray to play world No.200 Botic van de Zandschulp and the Scot had an hour to swot up on Griekspoor, who has only ever won twice on the ATP Tour.
He played the match of his life to fire down 23 aces. Murray battled back from a break down in the final set – and from 1-4 in the tiebreak– to win 6-7 6-4 7-6 in two hours and 51 minutes.
Murray, who is suffering from a cough, said: “I told you guys I wasn’t feeling in the best shape coming in and it showed a little bit in the match.
“I don’t think I deserved to win that match. But it’s about finding a way to win, and I did that. I’m proud of myself because it would have been easy to have lost that.”
Evans served for the match at
5-4 in the second set before losing 3-6 7-6 6-4 to Robin Haase.
But Jamie Murray and debutant Neal Skupski sealed the win by beating Wesley Koolhof and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-4 7-6 at 7.43pm local time after the 11am start.
Smith said: “It was another day of incredible drama. It was one hell of an effort from Holland.”
Britain will win Group E by beating Kazakhstan in their second match today. They could then play Germany in the quarters tomorrow after they shocked Argentina in Group C.
Novak Djokovic wants to create a new “super cup” in September by merging the Davis Cup with the new ATP Cup.
The revamped Davis Cup in Madrid this week will be followed by the ATP Cup in Australia starting on January 3.
There is already the Laver Cup – a Europe v Rest of the World team event organised by Roger Federer’s management team – in the late September slot.
And the world No.2, the president of the Players’ Council, wants changes.
Djokovic said: “Scheduling was always an issue, for both ATP Cup and Davis Cup. An idea that could happen is the merger between the two.
“I don’t think the two events can co-exist six weeks apart. It’s just a little bit too congested.”