Andy Murray revelled in the soccer-like atmosphere of the Davis Cup final on Friday, after pulling Britain level at 1-1 despite picking up a penalty point for an obscenity.
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Taking over after Kyle Edmund, the 20-year-old Yorkshireman had gone down dramatically in five sets to Belgium’s No 1 player David Goffin, Murray put the first point on the board for the British team with a straight sets victory against Ruben Bemelmans, the World No 108, in an at times bad tempered match at the Flanders Expo Centre in Ghent.
The first match of the day saw Belgium’s no. 1, David Goffin, take on Britain’s rising star Kyle Edmund. When he broke to take a 4-2 lead in the third set, the fans rose as one, but Murray soon took back control with a searing backhand winning pass.
Goffin said he was ready to play in Saturday’s doubles if necessary, his five-set win having taken less than three hours.
Goffin tried to instill early doubt by attacking the youngster’s opening service game, but Edmund displayed his stomach for the fight, fending off two break points for a determined hold of serve.
Goffin began his comeback with a break of serve in the third game of the third set and broke again for a 4-1 lead.
“It’s not a nice feeling losing from two sets to love up”.
The situation was getting desperate for Goffin and Belgium, but Edmund’s game finally faltered early in the third set and Goffin made the most of it to sew up the rubber.
“I wasn’t aware I’d been given the first warning”, he explained.
In the second rubber, Belgium’s Reuben Bemelmans will take on World No. 2 Andy Murray. By doing so he would repeat his feat of winning on all three days of Britain’s quarter-final and semi-final victories this summer and become only the fourth man to win 11 rubbers in a single Davis Cup year since the introduction of the World Group in 1981.
“He played every forehand really heavy from the beginning”, Goffin said during the post-match on-court interview.
Even Leon Smith’s most hopeful plans could not have followed this blueprint as Edmund gave his GB captain more cause for optimism as he broke again for a 2-1 lead in the second set.
“You feel like you’ve let them down. I was surprised he (the umpire) could hear what I said”, Murray said with a smile.
“I’m experienced enough now to not allow it to bother me, and try to use it to my advantage as much as I can”, he said.
Edmund came close to making his Davis Cup debut a memorable one after rolling through the first two sets against the higher-ranked Belgian.
Murray reacts to saving set point.
“I’m sure that’s why Andy and the other players love playing in it, because it’s different”.
Like Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka previous year, he had to make a quick adjustment, going from hard courts at the year-end championships in London to clay in the Davis Cup final. “I knew when it was 3-1 for me, the match turned”.
He wasn’t expected to win but after he breezed through the first two sets it looked like a massive upset was on the cards.
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This may not happen, though, with 2016 set to be very busy, with the Olympics in Rio added to the schedule, and the Scot will be looking for a second consecutive gold after the success in London.
