He’s ranked 15, 16 in the world, plays well on the clay.
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However, Goffin discovered his form just in time and Edmund wilted physically and mentally to go down 3-6 1-6 6-2 6-1 6-0 in just his second five-set match.
Andy Murray is ready to shoulder the pressure and carry Great Britain to a first Davis Cup title since 1936.
The Belgian then came roaring back to level the contest at 2-2. He won the match with a service victor that Bemelmans returned long.
“I didn’t actually hear I’d been given the second warning”, he said.
“I think both teams are capable of winning all of the points here”, said Murray afterwards.
“I would say the odds are about 80-20 in our favour”, says former Britain Davis Cup victor John Lloyd.
The year-end championship competition will consist of two singles matches on Friday, Nov. 27, at 7:30 a.m. ET, followed by the doubles match Saturday, Nov. 28, at 9 a.m. ET. It might have been a very different picture had Edmund not wavered or had Goffin not switched the momentum so effectively in the third set of that opening rubber. For all their Grand Slam experience, neither has played in a Davis Cup final before and experienced the responsibility that comes with it.
Britain competed in the first ever Davis Cup in 1900 and has played every year since, spending decades in the doldrums before reaching the final in 2015. “I hit thousands and thousands of balls. I didn’t feel like we should get any warning or discussion about the public”. Then things started to fall away. It was just disappointing that my body couldn’t hold up the way I would have liked it to. The thinking behind the Belgians’ choice of surface for this tie was that the clay-court granules would nullify some of Murray’s class. Still, it’s not as if Murray’s game doesn’t adapt to crushed brick, and this year he won his first two clay-court titles on the ATP World Tour as well as coming extremely close to making a first final at Roland Garros when he extended Novak Djokovic to five sets.
But it was far from straightforward for Murray, who was penalised a point in the fifth game of the third set for an audible obscenity. Kyle had good intentions and was really heavy and aggressive with his forehand. He just had nothing to lose. He played a wonderful match. In the advanced variation against the Caro Kann defence by Dhopade, Murali played a steady middle game to get advantage slowly.
But Davis Cup wins are rarely delivered with such ease and Goffin finally made his stand in the third set as Edmund flung his forehand wide to concede a break. “It was tough for me to find my timing on the baseline”. Goffin will await him in the first of Sunday’s reverse singles.
After the Paris attacks and with Belgium on a heightened terrorist alert, security was stepped up at the event.
Thirteen thousand fans flocked into the cavernous Flanders Expo amid tight security and, once they had taken their seats, it became clear there were many more British supporters than the official 10%.
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But inside, a party atmosphere prevailed and the 13,000-seat arena was full.
