A Davis Cup semi-final that began in nervous anticipation ended with heightened anxiety for Great Britain, who enter the second day 2-0 down and looking to a beaten, exhausted Andy Murray to rescue the cause in the doubles alongside his brother, Jamie, the day after their grandfather’s funeral.
When Kyle Edmund, the hero of the Belgrade quarter-final victory over Serbia in the absence of the world No2, failed to tame Guido Pella on Friday evening, the British bench and the rest of the stadium was littered with battered spirits. The elegant Argentinian left-hander was well worth his victory, striking with precision off the ground to come from behind and win 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in a minute over three hours.
It was a crushing blow for Edmund, who played so well in the US Open, and for an hour or so here. But 49 unforced errors to 20 created too big a hurdle for the Yorkshireman, who gave Pella 18 break chances. Only twice in 117 years of the competition have Great Britain come back from 2-0 down to win a tie: in 1930 against Germany and in 2013 against Russia, which was the start of a run that led to their lifting the cup in Ghent last November for the first time in 79 years.
Earlier on Friday Juan Martín del Potro’s lazy power off the ground overcame an unprecedented exhibition of ace-gathering by Murray. The Scot struck 35 of them, nine more than his previous best at the US Open in 2005, and it appeared as if he were striving for the most direct route to the finish line near the end of a long, successful but tough summer, as his first-serve success dipped to a disappointing 52%. If, after losing the longest match of his 11-year career, Murray can summon up two more momentous efforts this weekend to go with the many others he has conjured over the years for himself and the team, he will deserve the freedom of every city in the country – and not just his native Scotland.
Great Britain’s captain, Leon Smith, surely has to gamble on the oversized heart of the nation’s best player, and then ask him to go one mile further in the reverse singles on Sunday. Smith said: “We’ve had a lot of good days. But I guess at some point, especially where we are in the world group, playing against great teams, some days will be like that. You can’t win everything. Everyone feels flat just now. Andy? I don’t know. I had to sit on the court for the next [Edmund] match. I will check in with him when we get back.” There is no logical alternative. Murray has carried the team for years; if asked, he will find it difficult to decline, but before the Edmund result, he was unsure.
“I don’t know,” he said in a press conference notable for the shortness of his answers. “We’ll have to see how I am when I wake up. I will probably make a decision then. If I recover OK, I’ll be the favourite to win on Sunday.”
The tennis is not all he had to deal with. The brothers’ paternal grandfather, Gordon, died last week, and Jamie missed Friday’s matches to attend the funeral. “It’s been hard,” admitted Andy, who spent time with that side of the family earlier in the week, “but I always planned on playing.”
Murray, born just five miles from the arena on the other side of Glasgow 29 years ago, wanted a win over Del Potro as much as he did when he beat the Argentinian for the sixth time in eight contests to win his second Olympic gold medal in Rio only a month ago. However, there was no denying the big man, who won 6-4, 5-7, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in five hours and seven minutes, exactly an hour longer than their Brazilian epic. “It’s very fine margins,” Murray said.
“That happens in tennis, happens in sport some times. It could have gone either way. He just played a little bit better in the fifth set.”
It was high-grade attrition from the first game, which took Murray nine minutes to win, to the final thrusts and blocks and screams of delight and anguish of the fifth set. The 8,000 present in a setting that might have been constructed for the very purpose of generating hostile decibels received the winner with the sort of respect normally reserved for one of their own – especially this one of their own.
The adopted hero of the day, though, was Del Potro, who left as much on court as did the vanquished Murray. There is something immensely likeable about Del Potro, who has a face like a boy and a forehand that might have been forged in hell. So often did he draw blood it was a wonder the blue court did not turn crimson. Metaphorically, it sort of did.
In the end, the result came down to just three points – the winner taking 173 of them – and, if the visible evidence and the testimony of each were not enough to underline the commitment of the protagonists, a few other numbers are incontrovertible.
Neither of them has spent more competitive time on a tennis court than in this match. Murray went four hours and 54 minutes to beat Novak Djokovic in the 2012 US Open final and Del Potro’s previous longest match was also against the Serb, four hours and 43 minutes at Wimbledon three years ago.
There were 30 break points. Del Potro took six of his chances, Murray four. But not all of those in the debit column of either player were wasted opportunities; there were so many of them legitimately saved rather than squandered.
Although they are better placed, there is at least a sliver of trepidation in Argentina’s camp. As Murray observed: “There’s no reason why Kyle or Dan [Evans] couldn’t push Juan hard. After the match we’ve had today, I don’t whether he will play tomorrow, either.”
Nor does Del Potro. Asked if he would make himself available for the doubles, he said with a smile: “Now, no. I will try to recover as well and as fast I can, but it’s not going to be easy. So tired. I’ve got cramps everywhere.”
