World number two and Wimbledon champion Murray looked poised to chalk up his 30th victory in 32 Davis Cup matches when he led by two sets to one against the man he beat in last month’s Rio Olympics singles final. The 29-year-old World No 2 said he was “proud” of the performance he put up during his 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 4-6 defeat by the resurgent Argentine – and hadn’t considered withdrawing from the tie to join the mourners at his paternal grandfather Gordon’s funeral in Kilsyth yesterday. “Never played a match that long”.
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Veteran Jose Statham, playing a record 25th Davis Cup tie, downed Muhammad Abid 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 to give the Kiwis a flawless start.
They were breaking and holding with nearly equal ease and took the set for the loss of only 12 points and one game in 26 minutes, Del Potro dumping a 118mph serve from Andy low into the net.
Del Potro had been expected to be rested in preparation for the final singles match – which could well turn out to be the deciding rubber – but he was thrust into the action and he and Mayer got off to a very sluggish start. “I’m very happy. I’m very happy to give my team the second point”, Pella told DavisCup.com.
In a repeat of the Olympic Games final, which Murray won, Del Potro boomed down a plethora of forehands that caused his opponent no end of problems, and his big serve came to the fore at important moments – his 19th ace sealing victory. The Argentine has astonishing power on his forehand, but also surprisingly good movement for one so tall: This was a pass worthy of Nadal, worthy of a match, and sure enough, Murray could not get the break back. Fired up by this sense of injustice, the world number two produced some sublime tennis to win the next three games before taking the set on a tie break.
Argentina are playing an 11th semi-final in the last 15 years.
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 Sunday’s reverse singles.
By comparison with their singles match, this was quite brief, with the Murrays defeating Del Potro and Leonardo Mayer 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 inside three hours to maintain their record of never having lost a Davis Cup rubber together.
Still struggling physically, Murray roared as loud as the Glaswegian crowd merely when he held his serve for 3-2 as Del Potro poured on the pressure in set four.
Pella beat Kyle Edmund 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-3 6-2, meaning the Argentines can clinch victory with a day to spare in Glasgow if they win the doubles today. It was my longest match of my career and I won it against Andy playing here. I did fantastic. I fought for every points, did as best as I could.
“It’s very fine margins”, said Murray.
An exchange of breaks in the first set was followed by a decisive break from del Potro.
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“I thought I did great today”. “I will probably make a decision then”.
