IT WAS MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
Holders crash out as British comeback bid falls at the last hurdle
WHEN it came down to it, not even the Artful Dodger of British tennis was able to pick this tie from the pocket of Argentina.
Dan Evans, usually the most chirpy character, was left devastated after his failure to complete an unlikely recovery from 0-2 and put Great Britain through to a second straight Davis Cup final.
Presented by Andy Murray with the chance to win a fifth and deciding rubber, the British number two found himself bludgeoned into submission by the secret stand-in figure of Leonardo Mayer.
Making a nonsense of his ranking of 114, Mayer overcame a nervous start with a remarkable display of serving that saw him run out a 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 winner and silence the Emirates Arena.
Red-eyed with emotion in the aftermath of a what is a unique ordeal in tennis, Evans struggled to articulate the pain of defeat that always looked likely once GB lost both opening singles matches.
‘It’s not a nice feeling. The last time that happened was against Lithuania,’ he said. ‘So it’s pretty raw right now, for everyone. You do feel like you are the one who lost the match for those guys.
‘Coming together as such a good team, for everybody to leave on a loss obviously has not happened for a while and it adds a bit of extra salt to the wound.
‘After the first set, I was never in the match. I felt a lot of pressure on my serve and he served unbelievably. Getting the ball back into the court was tough and when I did he played pretty well from the back.’
Evans’s Lithuania reference was harking back to the nadir of 2010 when Wimbledon’s host nation was threatened with relegation to the Vanarama National League level of the competition.
Much has changed since, leaving captain Leon Smith able to put a braver face on things following a first defeat in six matches. ‘I’m really proud when I look at the team sheet now and look at names and I see the rankings, his is a much better situation, week in week out,’ he said.
The funeral of the Murrays’ paternal grandfather on the opening day provided a difficult backdrop to the tie.
‘Emotionally, that would have taken a lot out of them. To lose a family member is very difficult. No doubt it must have had an effect. Andy went out and fought his heart out and did his family proud yet again,’ said Smith.
Murray had earlier beaten Guido Pella 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 to set up the possible comeback. It was nonetheless a match in which GB won the first set in all five rubbers, which was credit to Argentina’s sense of purpose, and they will now face Croatia in late November.
The effect of Andy Murray’s five hour marathon on Friday was to force Juan Martin del Potro out of yesterday’s singles climax.
Argentina captain Daniel Orsanic said afterwards that, given the player’s general fragility, it meant there was no question he could play a second singles, which was why he was picked for Saturday’s doubles.
It was rendered largely irrelevant by the brave and skilled performance of Mayer, a Davis Cup specialist who has now won nine consecutive rubbers for his country. He played far more like the world No 21 he once was, and his serving was a revelation.
Evans, drafted in more expectedly for Kyle Edmund after Friday, might have attempted more variety to try and stem the flow of Mayer and looked lightweight by comparison.
Yet most of the time he was not allowed to weave his usual webs, handcuffed and given no time on the ball by his opponent.
His last match had been the US Open third round against eventual champion Stan Wawrinka, which had seen him hold a match point in their fourth set tiebreak. Mayer denied him far less daylight against his serve.
Murray had made another huge physical effort to overcome world No 49 Pella, coming through a third-set scare when there was an eight-minute medical timeout while he was treated for stabbing pains to the upper reaches of his quad muscle.
The world No 2 was on court for 10 hours and 13 minutes within a period of barely 48 hours. Asked why he needed to leave the court for treatment he replied simply: ‘ I had to go off because I can’t get my nuts out on the court.’
He had made dismissing such an accomplished baseliner look fairly straightforward.
Britain still do not have the resources of a nation like Argentina, which can whistle up an array of top 100-standard players to suit any tie. Still, they have never won the event.
‘It’s not easy to win the Davis Cup, it’s very hard,’ reflected Murray. ‘Argentina not winning it proves that, because they’ve had great, great players who can play on all surfaces.’
Murray will now take a couple of weeks away from serious tennis (aside from a charity exhibition) after a summer that brought a Wimbledon title and Olympic gold medal.