Britain competed in the first ever Davis Cup in 1900 and has played every year since, spending decades in the doldrums before reaching the final in 2015.
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Even the venue is unique for the tennis world: an expo hall with a 13,000-person capacity, fans sitting in metal bleachers set up around a temporary clay court.
All that stands between Andy Murray’s Great Britain and the biggest, heftiest trophy in sport – the Davis Cup, which is 105 kilograms of silver, wood, history, angst and longing – is David Goffin, the lightest man in elite tennis, weighing just 68kg.
“I didn’t hear any of the warnings because it was very loud between points. We were shouting to each other at times but it’s brilliant, and it’s what you expect with so many passionate fans here for the final”, Jamie said.
The doubles are slated for Saturday, with the decisive reverse singles on Sunday.
Andy Murray could seal Britain’s victory in Sunday’s first match against Goffin. The Murrays would achieve that – amazingly breaking two games in a row to suddenly give Britain a 4-2 lead in the set. Goffin picked off a tough return to break once more, but Darcis, the weaker serving link throughout, gave up his serve to love and, with two hours on the clock, Andy served out the set, 6-3.
At one-all in the second, the home crowd erupted as the Belgians earned a break-point opportunity on Jamie’s serve. The set would stay on serve from there, ending with the Belgians ahead 6-4 and the match tied at one-all.
These two are not even regular doubles partners, but they are brothers: Andy and Jamie Murray.
The British No 1 will reserve the emotion of yesterday for the future.
The Brits were looking to catch the Belgians off-guard early by trying to snatch an early break. At 4-3, the duo from Dunblane broke at love to take command of the set.
From there on in it was a case of holding on to serve and they managed that with little difficulty, taking the Darcis serve one more time along the way.
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.
Then it was Andy Murray’s turn. At the fourth deuce, Andy showed that he had no interest in keeping this going.
“I believe we can win the tie, obviously, otherwise there would be no point in us being there”.
But those aren’t the statistics that have had Murray jumping up on the clay in celebration, and letting out great roars to unsettle those pushing their trolleys around the Ikea store next door.
“It’s pretty much what we expected”, Murray said of the result after day one.
“We may not get the outcome, but it won’t be through the lack of trying or caring from anyone in the team”.
This wasn’t the first time a pair of British brothers had come together in a Davis Cup final to repel the Belgians, as Reggie and Laurie Doherty did just that in 1904 on a grass court in Wimbledon, but you can imagine that the flannel-trousered, Cambridge-educated Englishmen didn’t have to contend with this noise.
Edmund, meanwhile, came up short in his bid to become the first player to win a live rubber while making his debut in the competition in the final.
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Andy’s triumphs were personal, rewards for the sacrifices made since moving to Spain as a callow teenager to further his ambitions in what is essentially an individual sport.
