Argentina extend their lead over Great Britain to 4-1 and book their place to meet Croatia in the Davis Cup Finals after knocking out the defending champions Great Britain.
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Mayer, who unexpectedly replaced the in-form Juan Martin del Potro for the decider, propelled the South American nation into their first final since 2011 when they lost to Spain. Argentina are looking to reach their fourth final in 10 years in Glasgow while in Zadar, Croatia, Marin Cilic was facing France’s Richard Gasquet in the first of the two reverse singles on Sunday.
Unfortunately, as far as the Glaswegians were concerned, it was the wrong guy who had his moment of personal elevation under the arc-lights with Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer – who shares a birthday with Murray – defeating Britain’s Daniel Evans in the decisive fifth rubber.
Orsanic’s planning had been derailed as it emerged that even in defeat at the start of the weekend, Britain’s talisman Andy Murray had come close to turning the match his team’s way by demanding what he had of del Potro as both played the longest matches of their careers.
Victory for the Argentines would cap a return to form for del Potro, who took silver at the Rio Olympics after losing to Andy Murray in the final – but got his revenge on Friday when he beat the Scot in a rubber lasting over five hours. It means a lot.
“We lost a semi-final, so of course it sucks”.
The visitors’ best player, who was exhausted after beating Andy Murray in five hours and seven minutes on day one and losing against him and his brother Jamie in almost three hours in the doubles on day two, surprised everyone by declining to play the match that broke the 2-2 deadlock on Sunday afternoon.
“To have singles players in the draws at ATP 500s, Masters Series, main draw of Grand Slams, with Dan and Kyle now joining them, it’s much, much better, so when we do get together for Davis Cup we now have better depth”.
Brothers Andy and Jamie Murray overcame Argentina in their Davis Cup semi-final doubles match on Saturday at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
“I’ve never had sharp pain in a muscle”. T here were a few cards we had to keep to ourselves just to keep Great Britain thinking.
“I felt a lot of pressure on my serve That was it really – he served unbelievable”. Our team’s in much better shape than it was a few years ago.
All seemed fine until the early stages of the third set, when he began to wince in pain and then took an off-court injury time-out – “because I can’t get my nuts out on the court”, as he memorably put it.
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“I expected to feel exhausted and not great”. “Originally we would have hoped he would play the fifth rubber if possible but after Friday’s match we could not think of that”. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin beat Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy to level the tie at 1-1 in the first match of the day, but Russian Federation captured the doubles and then sealed the win when Andrei Kuznetsov beat Kukushkin 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
