Edmund and Ward were out on court practising soon after the end of the doubles, but the watching handful of remaining British fans will hope they are not required. Three carried brass horns, setting the tune as their friends belted out, “Oh when the saints, oh when the saints…”
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“This Davis Cup final is not only about Murray against Goffin on Sunday”, Van Herck added.
“My legs just started to get exhausted”.
“To play in a Davis Cup final with your brother and to win a point for your country is obviously great”, Murray junior said. Darcis or James or Kyle, whoever plays that match, will never have experienced anything like that before.
Andy Murray has played down the importance of today’s doubles rubber in the Davis Cup final after pulling Great Britain level at 1-1 on the opening day in Ghent.
That released some of the tension and the match was just about done when Jamie saved seven break points in the fourth game of the fourth, with Darcis failing to hold his serve in either of the final two sets. That meant he wouldn’t be as exhausted as he could have been heading into Saturday’s doubles match.
David Goffin and Steve Darcis were named as the pair to take on Andy and Jamie Murray at the Flanders Expo on Saturday afternoon. It was the first time in his career that he had won a match after losing the first two sets.
Instead it was left to Andy Murray to pull things level in fairly routine fashion.
However, roared on by the majority of the 13,000 crowd packed into an arena built inside a charmless warehouse on the edge of medieval Ghent, the 24-year-old hit back from two sets down for the first time to win 3-6 1-6 6-2 6-1 6-0. Goffin then net a volley as the Brits took full control of the match.
Goffin, on the other hand, seemed restricted by the weight of expectation on his shoulders and that weight will be transferred to the Murray brothers today. At 4-3, the duo from Dunblane broke at love to take command of the set.
They sizzled in some patches with lobs, angled volleys and backhand overheads but positioning and shot selection were often issues, no surprise thanks to their limited play in doubles.
The tension in the air confirmed that every fan understood that this moment was critical. Belgium earned three more break points, but the brothers refused to go down. “I didn’t know I had the first one, so it was a bit confusing”. Two Belgian errors followed and the brothers were 4-2 up. “For tomorrow and for Sunday, my motivation is higher than before the match”. They only stopped once they realized Andy was trying to thank them.
Concerns were raised before the contest regarding the elder Murray’s serving prowess on clay and those worries appeared valid early on as his first game went to deuce following an excellent groundstroke from Darcis. But it’s obviously going to be tough.
Suddenly Britain had a lead again at 4-2, only to get pegged back on serve at 4-3.
Belgium have never won the Davis Cup in its 115-year history. In the modern-day format of the event no player has ever finished a year unbeaten and with 11 victories in live rubbers, but the Scot will achieve exactly that if he secures Britain’s first triumph in the historic team competition for 79 years. “It is far from over”, he said.
Tears welled up in Edmund’s eyes as the match ran away from him in the fifth set, and he said: ” I believed I could win.
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“Tomorrow I have nothing to lose”, said the Belgian rather unconvincingly.
