After losing a five-set epic to Juan Martin del Potro on Friday all Murray could do was tie Great Britain and Argentina at two rubbers each, but securing a place in a second final in successive years was out of his hands, and eventually proved beyond Dan Evans.
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Argentina captain Daniel Orsanic made the incredibly risky decision to play star man Juan Martin del Potro in the doubles and that looked likely to backfire when the 2009 US Open victor, still working his way back to peak fitness after an very bad two-year spell with injuries, was replaced by Mayer for the pivotal fifth match.
“It’s one of those things”, he lamented, after failing to earn a break point off of Mayer’s serve in the final three sets.
So what was at stake in this concluding chapter of the Davis Cup semi-final between the British title-holders and Argentine challengers?
Croatia advanced to the Davis Cup final for only the second time with Marin Cilic’s straight-set win over France’s Richard Gasquet, which gave his side an unassailable 3-1 lead over the French with one singles rubber left to play. “It’s been a dream weekend for us”, Cilic said.
The rest of the top players pick and choose their Davis Cup outings, while the only tie Murray has missed since 2013 was July’s quarter-final in Serbia straight after Wimbledon.
“We just asked the guys to go out and fight their hardest, the Argentinians over the course of the weekend just played that little bit better and got the wins that were needed”.
Evans was also playing his first rubber of the tie, replacing Kyle Edmund for the reverse singles, but could not match the inspired play of his opponent, who has an 11-3 record in Davis Cup matches.
“I am very proud of all the players”.
“We played so many ties away, we had been waiting to play at home and now we just won in front of our home crowd it’s unbelievable”, said Croatia captain Zeljko Krajan.
“He played unbelievably well throughout the whole match”.
Argentina, who have been finalists four times in the past 10 years, will attempt to win their first Davis Cup when they travel to Croatia from November 25-27.
Andy teamed up with his brother Jamie to take the doubles, which strangely featured Del Potro, in four sets, and the comeback was on.
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Tennis: Former Davis Cup captain Wally Masur discusses Australia’s Davis Cup win over Slovakia. “The draw is on Thursday and we will find out where we are playing and figure it out”. “I’ve never really had any muscle injuries before”, he added. Now, in Andy and Jamie Murray, as well as a surging Evans and the young and upcoming talent of Kyle Edmund, they have a collective – if they can keep them together – will provide plenty of opportunities to get beyond the stage they halted at in the east end of Glasgow this time round.
