After weeks of agonising over his always troublesome transition from hard court to clay, Andy Murray is poised to help Great Britain make tennis history on the surface in Ghent this weekend.
If this tight-knit Great Britain team beat Belgium to lift the Davis Cup for the first time since Fred Perry and Bunny Austin defeated the Australians at Wimbledon in 1936, they may like to thank Rafael Nadal, because it was Murray’s win on clay over the Spanish master of the red dirt in the Madrid final in May that transformed the Scot’s season.
He has subsequently described his game in 2015 as the most consistent since he joined the Tour proper 11 years ago – it is the first time he has finished the year at No2 in the world – and the season may yet prove to be the apogee of his career. If he can add a Davis Cup medal to an Olympic gold and two slam titles, he will have given his already considerable accomplishments a complete polish.
Yet only a few weeks ago Murray was so nervous about the prospect of playing in this final he considered withdrawing from the ATP World Tour Finals in London, concerned that playing on the hard court at the O2 Arena would disturb his rhythm before a switch to clay at the Flanders Expo less than a week later. He should have looked back, not forward.
Murray might have caught Nadal on a marginally off-day six months ago but his own claycourt game was in excellent order, as he proved a week earlier in Munich when he won his first title on the surface, beating Philipp Kohlschreiber in a three-setter that spilled into the next day.
Those two victories infused Murray with the belief he could handle the peculiar demands of the surface. Here he will be eased into the final against the world No108, Ruben Bemelmans, in the second match on Friday afternoon but more rigorously tested in the first reverse singles on Sunday by David Goffin, who grew up on the surface. However, Goffin, ranked No16 in the world, lost to Murray on a hard court in Paris earlier this month and also beat him in the first round of Wimbledon last year.
When a Belgian journalist put it to the Scot that the final was being portrayed here as Murray versus Belgium, he had to pause before answering, conscious of the strength of the team ethic in the Great Britain squad. “If you look at it that way,” he replied, “they’re actually putting a lot of pressure on their own players in the other matches, to be honest. I’m happy to take as much pressure on my shoulders as is needed. I’ve been in that position a lot of times in my career. I think I will be able to deal with it OK.
“I also believe in all of the players in our team. Everyone, when they’ve been asked to, stepped up and performed extremely well in the Davis Cup. Kyle [Edmund, making his Cup debut] has a lot of weapons on the court. He has a lot of firepower out there. It’s not going to be an easy match tomorrow for David [Goffin]. Looking at it as Belgium versus me is actually counterproductive to them, if that’s the case.”
These were not exactly boxing-level mind-games but the pre-match atmosphere has definitely tightened up. The teams were friendly but wary at the draw on Thursday.
Murray, though, was relaxed enough to crack a joke at the expense of the team captain, Leon Smith. Asked if anyone had hit the ceiling girders in practice (they are a few centimetres lower than regulations stipulate), he said: “Some of Leon’s forehands have ended up in there but I don’t think it’s affected any of us really.”
The combatants, meanwhile, are all searingly aware of the seriousness of the engagement. Belgium have appeared in a solitary final – 111 years ago when the British Isles, as the team were known then, won 5-0. They have met 10 times since, most recently when Belgium beat a Murray-free British team 4-1 in Glasgow three years ago. Much has changed dramatically since then for Smith’s squad – Murray returning to action being the most significant development.
This year, he and his brother have won eight of the nine points garnered in matches against the other three slam nations: USA in round one, France in the quarter-finals and Australia in the semis in Glasgow in September. That is an extraordinary contribution from one family.
They will play the doubles again here on Saturday – which means no place for Dominic Inglot – and will start strong favourites against Steve Darcis and Kimmer Coppejans. What the score is then depends very much on Edmund, who is only the fifth player in the 115-year history of the event to make his Cup debut in a final.
None yet has won but Edmund, a comfortingly cool customer with a big game, brings to the tie opener against Goffin the confidence of a solid recent campaign on clay in South America, and a win over the accomplished Carlos Berlocq in a Challenger final in Buenos Aires.
Smith watched from the stands, and was sufficiently convinced to gamble on the 20-year-old ahead of the 28-year-old James Ward, who at No156 in the world is 56 places adrift of the kid from Beverley. Still, if needed to steady the ship in the final rubber, Ward will draw on his vast cup experience – and what a story it would be were he to be the man to win it for Great Britain.
It is up to Murray to save the nation that anxiety.
