It’s heavy going for honest Andy
Out-of-shape Murray still helps GB to victory
FROM Andy Murray there was the unprecedented confession that he had let his high standards slip when it came to preparing for this Davis Cup finals week.
Fortunately, the same could not be said about the well-honed fighting spirit which saw him lay the ground for Great Britain to potentially make the quarter-finals.
Leon Smith’s team flew by the seat of their pants but, after Murray’s painstaking 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 opening win over unheralded Tallon Griekspoor, they progressed to a 2-1 opening group win over Holland.
It means victory in today’s match against Kazakhstan will guarantee them a place in the last eight, thanks to Jamie Murray and debutant Neal Skupski clinching the deciding doubles rubber last night.
Andy was playing his first match since October 20 and looked heavy-legged at times against a 23-year-old opponent who used the lively conditions at altitude to slam down 22 aces.
Murray’s ring rust was not a surprise, unlike the admission he made after the match. For so long a paragon of ultra-professionalism, he confessed he was still carrying a few extra kilos from his recent break that saw the arrival of his third child with wife Kim.
He added that he had prepared himself to face Holland’s Botic van de Zandschulp, rather than world No 179 Griekspoor, who he claimed had deserved to win their match.
‘The weight and things like that, that’s my fault,’ said the 32-year-old Scot, who scraped through a deciding tiebreak 7-5.
‘I’ve never had that in my career before. It’s something as you get older you need to keep a closer eye on. I won’t put myself in that position again. I’ll make sure when I do have breaks, I’m more careful with what I’m eating.
‘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.’
There had been a lack of homework done on Griekspoor, who the British team thought might be injured.
‘That was our bad,’ said Murray. ‘We’ll maybe do a little bit better with that as the tournament progresses. I didn’t watch a whole lot of him play before the match.
‘He played brilliantly. I was lucky at the end. He deserved to win.’
Given the huge battalions of staff who have been airlifted in from the
Lawn Tennis Association’s headquarters, Murray’s confessions were particularly eyebrow-raising.
However, after Dan Evans’ three-set loss to Robin Haase, the situation was rescued by Jamie Murray and Skupski, who beat the formidable Wesley Koolhof and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-4, 7-6.
Kazakhstan are probably stronger than Holland and a decision will be made this morning on whether to field
Andy Murray, who Smith had considered resting yesterday, after his near three-hour match.
If GB lose 2-1 they would find themselves part of a complex mathematical mix to determine the two best-performing second-placed group teams who will go through.
There was controversy yesterday when Canada, already qualified as group winners after a win over Italy, conceded their doubles rubber to the United States late on Tuesday night.
They insisted this was due to three players being injured, but it also had the effect of handing their neighbours a 6-0, 6-0 result, which could theoretically affect the final standings.
The new 18-nation format allows two countries to progress to the quarter-finals by finishing second in their three-team groups, with sets and games won taken into account to determine the best performing runners-up of the six groups.
Canada’s move is a loophole that organisers appear to have overlooked.
‘I don’t think that’s good,’ said Murray. ‘Where Canada may have felt that was a dead rubber in theory because they were through, that could have implications to all of the teams potentially that might finish in second place.’