Doubles is a discipline that, at its best, can resemble the most complicated ballet, but Andy and Jamie Murray at times moved like a pair of pavement buskers before finding a winning rhythm to give Great Britain a precious 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup final.
After a struggle that spanned two hours and 49 minutes, the brothers who have played with and against each other since they were small boys in Dunblane, conquered their nerves and the gritty David Goffin and Steve Darcis – the surprise late pairing called by Belgium – to win 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The younger Murray sibling can wrap this up when he plays Goffin in the first reverse singles on Sunday, but the anxiety will not dissipate one iota until the job is done and history is served. It is, as we all know, 79 years since Great Britain have won the Cup and the determination to disturb a few ghosts remains total. If he won it with a shank, he would not be bothered.
“We have two opportunities tomorrow to win the match,” Andy Murray said. “I’m not getting carried away. Goffin is a world-class player. It’s good to be up 2-1, though.”
This is not a beauty contest; it is about completing a mission and a journey that began with this team and the captain, Leon Smith, five years ago when British tennis was at a nadir. The method of rehabilitation is irrelevant. As Andy’s one-time coach Brad Gilbert famously remarked, winning ugly is no bad thing. This, at times, was pretty ugly.
“There was a lot of stress,” Smith said. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight. Playing against two guys staying back presented different issues, and Jamie took a little time to adjust to that tactically. We’ve seen how tough Goffin has been this weekend. It’s going to take one hell of an effort for Andy to get a point.”
It was some gamble the Belgians picking Goffin. He had won two doubles matches from 15 on the Tour, three from seven with Darcis in Challengers, and his Davis Cup résumé was even thinner: a loss to Ross Hutchins and Colin Fleming at Braehead in the Zone 2 quarter-finals against Great Britain three years ago. In short, it is not his favoured discipline.
But, in his eighth match alongside Darcis, Belgium’s best singles player did not look too bad compared with Jamie Murray. Rarely over the past two years can the Scot have taken so long in a match to nail his best tennis.
Expectations were evenly shared, if not the ability. After each held to love at the start, the Belgians forced deuce in the third game as the Murrays tried to bed into a working rhythm, clashing rackets three times in the first 10 minutes.
Jamie changed rackets after netting a smash on the final point of the fourth game but there seemed something more fundamentally wrong with his tennis than his equipment. He was peculiarly on edge, while his brother looked to be settling in comfortably enough in a low-key start.
A netted forehand volley and a faltering ball-toss betrayed further nerves but Jamie held to 30. The first crowd interruption arrived in the middle of Andy’s serve at 30-all in the ninth game and the Belgians grabbed the first break point. He saved with a big serve and held with an ace, but the flow was with the home team.
Belgium, who had held the upper hand for most of the first half-hour, nevertheless had to serve to stay in the set. Jamie, whose timing and court awareness had disintegrated, at last contributed, forcing deuce on Goffin’s serve. Andy completed the job after a ping-pong exchange at the net with a volley to Darcis’s feet.
If the success went against the trend, it was doubly welcome for the Scottish brothers, who had yet to mesh as well as they had at Queen’s and in Glasgow, where they carried the team to victory on the Saturday in the quarter-final against France and then against Australia in the semi-final.
Belgium, behind in the serving cycle again, got a look at 0-30 on Jamie’s serve in the third game of the second set. He hit long to surrender break point, double-faulted with a shaking left arm for another and Goffin made sure of the break with a smash to an empty court for a 2-1 lead just short of the hour.
Andy was holding the team together as Jamie struggled and he kept them in touch with a decent service game. On Darcis’s serve, the British got a break point but this time Andy botched the chance and they held.
The younger Murray held to stay in the set for 4-5 and it was left to Darcis to serve out, Goffin landing the killer blow.
At a set apiece, there was little to choose between the combinations, Great Britain living on adrenaline and profiting from their opponents’ mistakes more often than creating their own openings.
There was an exchange of breaks in the third, followed by a disputed line call that resulted in a replayed point on Goffin’s serve at 30-all in the sixth game. Darcis lobbed long and a rare chink of light appeared for Great Britain, Jamie converting by putting the ball tight on Darcis, who netted.
Now the elder sibling was starting to play some tennis. As the jitters grabbed the Belgians, Jamie came to life, grabbing three break points in the eighth game, before Andy forced Goffin to net a volley and the British fans felt enlivened after a relatively quiet period.
As Andy pointed out: “We just needed to find a way to win a few more points on Jamie’s side and when we did that it changed the match for us. It was a great tactical switch.”
Darcis saved net point on Andy’s serve as he thrashed a forehand at Jamie, but the world No2 wrapped it up to 30 with a body serve that Darcis could not control.
The contest got serious again in the fourth, Goffin spreading his arms in celebration of the shot of the match to that point, a forehand that left Andy bolted to the clay for 0-30 in the second game, only for the Scot to reply with an equally superb lob – and a finger point to their opponents – on his way to a tough hold through two deuce points.
The Murrays saved a remarkable eight break points to hold in the fourth game, but a quick hold by the Belgians told the story of their defiance.
Then, as the Murray’s closed on the prize, breaking Darcis for 5-2, the British contingent of maybe just over a thousand filled this unlovely but hugely atmospheric hall with more noise than the Belgians could muster.
It was left to Jamie to put the seal on it with the last service game of the match. With a little help from Andy, he did it – no Carlos Acosta, maybe, but a proud winner … and one relieved brother.
