Great Britain endured a rare disappointing day of Davis Cup action, leaving their hopes of a second consecutive title hanging by a thread.
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Having trailed 0-2 after the opening day of this semifinal against Del Potro’s Argentina, Andy and Jamie Murray needed to win Saturday’s doubles rubber to avoid elimination, but having done that, it still leaves Sunday’s singles rubbers.
Murray will be expected to beat Pella when they meet in the first singles match on Sunday, but then Del Potro will have a golden opportunity to clinch the tie when he faces British No 2 Edmund.
‘It’s not going to get better for me than playing with him in front of a Scottish crowd, its quite emotional, ‘ a teary Jamie Murray added.
The 30-year-old doubles expert left the arena on Friday during Andy’s titanic tussle with Del Potro to attend their grandfather’s funeral.
Once again, the Mayer service game collapsed when it mattered and there was nearly something predatory about Andy Murray as he approached the net on the first of three break points to make sure Britain needed only one.
“It’s one of those things you have to go through in life”. “It is exciting to play against the best players in the world and it was a battle”.
He was the best player on the court throughout the match, his sublime volleys helping Britain race into a 5-0 lead.
Andy Murray insisted that he will wait until this morning before deciding whether to link up with his brother Jamie in this afternoon’s doubles match.
However, after his five-hour and seven-minute epic win against Murray on Friday, the expectation was that Del Potro, still working his way back into the game following wrist surgery, would take the day off ahead of today’s reverse singles. “I felt there wasn’t too many mistakes on important moments”, said Murray after the result.
“Everyone obviously feels flat just now – that’s normal. In doubles there’s not as much running but you need to be very sharp”.
It was also his second successive defeat from two sets to one up, a position from which he has been nigh on invincible in recent years, after last week’s US Open exit to Kei Nishikori.
Murray is clearly worn out but is confident he will have enough, saying: “I think so”. It would be a risk if I had to play another match like I played yesterday.
Momentum was with them and a set point on the Del Potro serve was duly taken with a return victor from Andy. That’s nine sets and eight hours so far, while Evans, should he be selected, would be fresh.
“I’m trying to do my comeback slowly, but this weekend I made a big effort during the week”. I have already beaten the top four guys in the world, but my biggest goal is to finish the season healthy. It was the longest match of my career and I won it against Andy playing here. If something happened to me in this situation, I would be really, really sad because I fought a lot to come back to tennis.
He began well against Pella, ranked 49th to Edmund’s 55th, and recovered from 3-0 behind to win the opening-set tie-break.
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Del Potro wasn’t slated to play in the doubles and was a surprise late change by Argentina captain Daniel Orsanic, especially given the player’s injury problems in recent years.
