The Argentine had to come back from 2-1 down in sets in the opening match, sealing his 6-4 5-7 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-4 win in five hours and seven minutes. This was the 6th time that Murray brothers played together in the Davis Cup doubles match and they are yet to suffer a defeat, as they were carried by a great crowd today in Glasgow.
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Del Potro’s resurgence has been the feel-good story of the summer and it would be a hard-hearted person who was not at least a little bit happy for the genial 27-year-old.
“I didn’t expect to play eight hours in two days”.
Argentina are looking to reach their fourth final in 10 years.
Great Britain will still need to win both if they are to successfully defend their title, but Andy Murray will take confidence and hope that Del Potro tires in a potential decider with Kyle Edmund.
There’s quite the difference in height between Del Potro and Evans: 9 inches.
Edmund had come into his own as the British No. 1 in the quarter-finals in Serbia, where he won both singles rubbers against Janko Tipsarevic and Dusan Lajovic, to send GB into the semi-finals.
The Argentinian was serving magnificently, once going four games without dropping a point, and seemed to have an answer for everything.
Murray and Del Potro are the headline acts of the tie but faced each other on day one due to the Argentine’s lowly ranking following his recovery from three wrist operations. The contest is best of five sets ran over five matches.
In the absence of Del Potro Argentina could call on either Federico Delbonis or Mayer.
And he produced some of his best tennis in front of a partisan crowd at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena… starting with a hard-fought first set that he won 6-4.
The Scot has an excellent record in five-set contests and his ability to dig himself out of the deepest holes is remarkable but this was a second successive match in which he has lost from two sets to one up.
The second was far better from Murray and the Scot made the breakthrough at the ideal moment as he finally broke Del Potro’s serve to take it 7-5. That will be the turning point of the set, as there will be no more breaks until the end. “I fought for every point, tried as best as I could and that’s all you can do”, Murray said.
Pella levelled the match by winning a tight second set and, having gone a break down in set three, he suddenly made the decisive move, winning six games in a row from 3-2 down before going on to triumph 6-7 6-4 6-3 6-2.
He started brightly enough leaping out to a 3-0 lead before being swiftly pegged back, and despite starting the resulting first set tie-break slowly, he soon started to wind up the pace, proving what a weapon his forehand is becoming, and picking off the first set at a canter.
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The pressure was growing, though, and Del Potro bludgeoned a forehand victor to make the crucial breakthrough for 4-3. Del Potro produced a stunning forehand victor in the seventh game of the set to put himself ahead in the match and he managed to serve for victory.
