Would Murray have won the French Open had he not played the Davis Cup tie against Japan?
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Great Britain’s Andy Murray reacts during his match against Argentina’s Guido Pella, during …
“It is an excellent victory to beat Great Britain here in Glasgow”.
As they geared up to take on the Argentine duo, they were tasked with keeping the nation’s hopes of retaining the title for a second year running alive.
This is Great Britain’s first defeat since the 2014 quarterfinals against Italy in April 2014. On this occasion, Harry Houdini couldn’t slip out of the straight-jacket. “Even though he is out of the top 100 that is not his level”, Orsanic added.
On Saturday: Andy Murray/Jamie Murray (Bri) bt Juan Martin Del Potro/Leonardo Mayer (Arg) 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
On paper, it was very good news for Britain but Mayer was ranked as high as 21 last summer and went into the match on an eight-rubber winning streak in Davis Cup singles. This was, without equivocation, the biggest occasion in his tennis life. Hawk-Eye was malfunctioning when a ridiculous Tweener lob from Evans was called narrowly out, meaning the original call stood.
Meyer was a surprise last minute selection to face Daniel Evans and it paid off, as he came back from a set down to defeat the Brit 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
The three-time Grand Slam victor at times appeared unplayable in the second set and Pella, ranked 49th in the world, struggled to compete. They had lost to Germany in the first round of the World Group in 2014.
There was another reason why this was at the limit of Evans’ experience – and that was the noise.
“Mayer played with his best tennis and the tennis we are used to seeing that won a lot of Davis Cup matches in the past”. In the end, perhaps, it was his victory over Murray that will abide in the memory as one of the performances of the year.
Backstage intrigue is an element of every Davis Cup weekend, especially as you go deeper into the competition, and this tie was no different.
Shortly after the conclusion of the match came confirmation that Evans would be taking on 114th-ranked Leonardo Mayer rather than Del Potro.
It was a repeat of their Olympic singles final in Rio which Murray won and the longest match of their respecitve careers at over five hours.
“The most important thing for Dan and Kyle and the other players is they’re just doing a great job week in, week out”, he said.
The third set happened to be the only set in which Pella actually committed more unforced errors than Murray, and the Briton managed to battle his way to a convincing, straight-sets victory.
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On the face of it, it was straightforward, but Murray spent much of the third set wincing and needed an off-court injury time-out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.
