Murray leads fightback with superb show

Scot may now play in crucial doubles as Britain bid to beat French in Davis Cup

T was always going to take something special to turn the atmosphere at Queen’s Club into something akin to a Glasgow crowd – but Andy Murray managed it yesterday as he produced another superb Davis Cup performance to pull Britain level at 1-1 with France in their quarter-final.

After Gilles Simon had crushed James Ward 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 in the opening match, Murray came to his team’s rescue yet again, seeing off Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-6, 6-2 to leave the tie perfectly poised going into today’s doubles.

At 1-1 and with Ward unlikely to win his reverse singles – at least on the evidence of his display yesterday – Murray will surely now play in the doubles today alongside his brother Jamie, who himself is fresh from his run to the final at Wimbledon.

It was a brilliant performance from Murray, who has now won 22 of his 24 Davis Cup singles matches, one made all the better by the fact it was played in a gusting wind so bad that Tsonga completely missed the ball when attempting one serve late in the first set.

T he former Australian Open runner-up had three set points in the second-set tie-break but Murray held firm and then ripped through the third to clinch victory.

The crowd had been subdued in the first match as Ward was outclassed by world No.11 Simon, the 600 or so French voices outsinging the home support as a result.

Ward, the hero of the first-round win over the United States when he beat John Isner, looked strangely flat and played too passively, admitting afterwards that he “didn’t give the crowd much to shout about”.

Murray, on the other hand, had them in the palm of his hand as he outgunned Tsonga, holding off the Frenchman’s second-set charge, a strong mental effort just seven days on from the disappointment of his Wimbledon near-miss.

With around 1,000 of the 7,000 tickets reserved for its members, Queen’s Club had posted a request on its website, stating: “Everyone attending is strongly encouraged to throw off the shackles, enter the spirit of the event and wear something patriotic, Union Jacks from head-to-toe.”

It was classic Queen’s Club but it was Murray’s brilliance that got them going, especially in the tight stages at the end of the first and second sets.

His reaction when he broke to win the first set – leaping in the air and pumping both fists in the direction of his team-mates – thrilled the crowd and in the second set, he fed off their energy as he quelled Tsonga’s resurgence.

Tsonga broke in the opening game of the second set only for Murray to level at 3-3 but in the tie-break he had three chances to win it, each one saved superbly by the Scot, who eventually took it 12-10 when Tsonga sent a forehand long.

After an early break in the third, Murray saved break points in his first two service games and then cruised through the rest of the set to clinch a