Andy Murray overcame fatigue and the considerable weight of ever-present expectations to beat Bernard Tomic in three sets here on Sunday to put Great Britain into the final of the Davis Cup for the first time in 37 years.
The Scot, lifted by the loud support of his home fans, shrugged off the tiredness that had enveloped him after winning the doubles over nearly four hours the previous day alongside his brother, Jamie, and beat Australia’s best-ranked player without fuss, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.
Great Britain, who have won nine of their past 10 home ties in the competition, play the winner of the Belgium-Argentina semi-final in the final in November.
Murray started the match with a 123mph ace down the middle and, 1hr 46mins later, finished the job when Tomic’s last, weary forehand went long.
“I’m delighted to get through,” Murray said. “We knew this was going to be a tough tie, because Australia have so much depth in their team. It’s been very tough physically and mentally.”
Asked what it would mean to win the cup for the first time since 1936, he said, “It would be an incredible achievement but there’s a long way to go.”
His own history strongly favoured his triumph here. Over a decade only five Australians had got the better of him in juniors or pro, singles or doubles: Luke Bourgeois in a Manchester Challenger in 2003, Paul Baccanello in a Vancouver Challenger 10 years ago, Ashley Fisher in doubles at the 2006 US Open, Jordan Kerr in doubles at the Paris Masters in 2007, and last month in Montreal when John Peers partnered Andy’s brother, Jamie. He arrived here 14-0 against Australians in Tour singles.
Tomic was 15-2 in Davis Cup matches, although many of those were on the fringes of competitiveness. He had an extra day’s rest and, going on the way he was near to collapsing in the closing moments of the 2hr 47mins he spent on court with Dan Evans on Friday, he needed it.
Although Murray was not exactly moving like Nijinsky, he had the measure of Tomic early on and broke him with sustained pressure for 3-1. After quarter of an hour, Tomic had taken only one point off Murray’s serve with his own racket, as well as a double fault in the fifth game.
He showed how dangerous he could be when he broke back in the ninth game as Murray served for the set, and a few slack groundstrokes by the world No3 gave Tomic parity in the 10th game. But his own loose work off the ground gave Murray three set points and a delightful drop shot left him stranded on the baseline after 47 minutes.
Some extraordinary rescue tennis won Murray a break for 3-1 and Tomic’s spirits dipped visibly. A hat-trick of Murray aces in the fifth game did his confidence no good at all and the match was slipping away from him rapidly after just over an hour.
Within quarter of an hour, Tomic was two sets down as Murray add another couple of aces, holding to love. In seven five-setters in his career, Tomic has twice overcome a two-set deficit to win – against Igor Andreev and Fernando Verdasco – but his stamina has not been evident in this semi-final.
When Murray broke Tomic for the fourth time, in the third game of the deciding set, the Proclaimers burst over the airwaves and the crowd were on their feet in early celebration of Murray’s win.
He did not let them down, holding to love with his 15th ace for 4-2, breaking his demoralised opponent again with a superb defensive game, and closing it totally in command.
His 15 aces, at £50 each, put £750 in the coffers of Unicef to help their drive for refugee aid.
