Britain’s Kyle Edmund’s Davis Cup debut turned from a dream to a nightmare as David Goffin fought back from two sets down for the first time in his career to win the opening point of the final for Belgium in Ghent. He wasted a set point at 5-0 and dropped his serve when he was serving for the set at 5-1.
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Murray followed the pair on to court and there was no such drama. He prevailed despite receiving a point penalty for an audible obscenity, a moment that temporarily lifted Bemelmans.
He said: “Kyle played an unbelievable first two sets”.
“The third set was tricky after missing a few chances early on and he started going for his biggest shots when the new balls came out”, he said.
Attacking Murray’s second serve, Bemelmans broke the Scot, to huge roars from the crowd, in the sixth game of the third set. More was to come, and the confident Edmund broke again to take the set, 6-1.
Murray also boasts a terrific record in the Davis Cup, with just two singles defeats – against Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka in 2005 and Italy’s Fabio Fognini in 2014 – and 25 victories.
He and brother Jamie Murray will then play doubles on Saturday, before Andy plays a final singles match on Sunday.
The doubles are slated for Saturday, with the decisive reverse singles on Sunday. I didn’t hear it and I had no idea. In fact I would go much further. He said “for a second warning”.
“But I know they wouldn’t miss it because they’ve watched us so passionately throughout this whole campaign”.
Edmund will make his Davis Cup debut while the spearhead of the British challenge, Andy Murray, is aiming to become the first man in more than 30 years to win all eight of his Davis Cup singles matches in a season. Perhaps Leon Smith would be wisest to avoid telling him what happened to the other five when it comes to his pre-match pep talk.
“You could say it’s a gamble, but not really”. Obviously that changes the way the court plays and the way the ball travels through the air. It fell away at the end very quickly. It was just disappointing that my body couldn’t hold up the way I would have liked it to. “It was tough for me to find my timing on the baseline”. Their first match was played 111 years ago, in their only final in 11 meetings-until now.
Edmund’s case for selection was helped greatly by the fact that he recently won a Challenger title on the clay of Buenos Aires.
The first game went to six deuces and Edmund saved two break points to win it in 12 minutes.
He wrapped up the second set 6-1 with Goffin apparently all over the place in struggling to cope with the heavy hitting of the bigger man before Edmund himself appeared to choke as his opponent flattened him in the final three sets in a match lasting two hours and 45 minutes.
With the spring back in legs that seemed set in concrete earlier, and his shoulders released, Goffin began to feed off the energy of the 13,000 crowd and Edmund wilted. He couldn’t get near me.
“He’s going up against someone he probably doesn’t know much about although I’m sure they’ve done their homework”.
“At the [lead-up] ties you think everything is fine, and the security, you don’t necessarily need it. But, in situations like this, it’s great we have such capable people able to give us the best advice”.
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Goffin, meanwhile, admitted he had been “a little bit worried” by Edmund’s start and tipped the young Briton to have a bright future.
