Man of Steel is the hero again
Murray wins five-hour epic as GB march on
British captain Leon smith described him as a ‘Man of steel’, while Andy Murray himself somehow had the energy left to crack a joke about his baby’s bathtime.
Either way, the follow-up to November’s Davis Cup triumph was another extraordinary performance from the 28-year-old, which has sent Great Britain through to this year’s quarter-finals.
A post-Wimbledon trip to Belgrade to face Novak Djokovic’s serbia beckons after Murray, coming in after a month’s lay-off, reached deep within himself yesterday to defeat world No 6 Kei Nishikori 7-5, 7-6, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 to give GB a 3-1 win over Japan.
Britain’s No 1 spent the exact same amount of time on court — four hours and 54 minutes — as when he defeated Djokovic to win the 2012 Us Open Final at Flushing Meadows.
the scot emulated Fred Perry that night and did so again inside t he l ess hallowed venue of Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena. Murray’s 14th straight victory in the competition across singles and doubles overtook Perry’s record.
Afterwards, Murray swiftly turned his thoughts to heading home to surrey. ‘it’s Kim’s first Mother’s Day, so it will be nice to get back to see her. i’ll try and get back for bathtime and put her to sleep — not Kim, the baby,’ he said in his usual droll fashion.
he later affirmed he would play against serbia — surprisingly narrow winners against Kazakhstan — with the tie as likely to be on hard court as clay. Murray might feel differently if he gets to the last weekend of Wimbledon, something that could also affect Djokovic’s thinking in a jam-packed Olympic year.
What is clear is that Murray’s commitment to the British cause remains, undimmed either by parenthood or having won the Davis Cup last year.
‘i’ve been away from the court for five weeks, my body is very sore. Maybe i wanted to win too much and was getting frustrated,’ he said. ‘People talk about long- distance running and that the last lap is easier than some of the ones before that because you know you’re nearer to the end.
‘With every game you know you’re getting closer. At the beginning of the fourth set, i felt a bit slow and sluggish. in the fifth, you just try and fight for every single point. i thought i did well to come through physically.’
he recovered from a break down in the fifth set against a player who looked fresher and was very much performing to the level of the world No 6. After taking two weeks completely off last month, the edge in his physical conditioning was not quite there, but he refused to give in to the pain.
it was not unlike the quarter-final against France at Queen’s last year, when he would not yield to France’s Gilles simon, who was within a point of going two sets up.
As then, Murray was playing his third match in three days and, if he had lost, the wisdom of him accompanying brother Jamie in saturday’s doubles would have come under scrutiny.
this was the eighth consecutive tie that Murray had tried to close out in the fourth rubber of an early sunday afternoon, but never had it been against an opponent with such a high ranking as Nishikori.
the Japanese talisman, taking the ball early and forcing Murray back, showcased his ability to shift opponents around with his piercing groundstrokes, especially when hitting the cross court forehand, which often ran the scot wide.
if Nishikori has a weakness, it is his serve, and Murray exploited it to go two sets ahead, although he went from 4-0 up to 4-5 in the second set tiebreak before claiming it 8-6.
With Murray getting tired and tetchy — he received a code violation in the second set for breaking a racket frame — a historic reverse loomed. he had not lost from two sets up since he was 18 (against David Nalbandian at Wimbledon).
But he was to break three times to clinch a decider before another adoring home crowd, although preposterously expensive tickets meant that yesterday, disappointingly, was not a sell- out. Dan Evans missed out on playing a fifth and deciding rubber in his home city.
replicating the magic of late November in Ghent was never going to be easy — but this came remarkably close.