Murray recovered from squandering a two-set lead to beat Kei Nishikori and give the defending champions a 3-1 win over Japan in the first round on Sunday afternoon.
Advertisement
Murray, playing for the first time in five weeks since the birth of his daughter, extended his Davis win streak in singles and doubles to 13 straight matches.
World number one Novak Djokovic took nearly five hours to beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-3 6-2 as Serbia levelled their tie with Kazakhstan at 2-2. The U.K. will now face Serbia in the quarterfinals, and Djokovic will look to lead his country over the reigning Davis Cup champions. I think from a very young age, him and Jamie, their mum Judy, they really embraced the team elements, the team sport, whether it is club tennis, county tennis, regional tennis, into global, it has never really gone away.
Finally he was able to give he crowd a laugh, while describing that as it is his wife Kim’s first Mothers” Day he would try and get back in time for “bath time and try and put her to sleep, ‘ before clarifying he meant Sophia.
So far, though, he has only faced one opponent in the world’s top 10 – no.6-ranked Kei Nishikori who pushed him for 4hr 54min in Birmingham on Sunday before eventually succumbing. His body language said it all through the first two days, and his words ahead of the tie were just as eloquent: “I really want to win it again”.
He did not do too much wrong in the opening two sets but two double faults contributed to a Murray break in the final game of the first, and Nishikori could not capitalise on his momentum in the second-set tie-break after turning a 4-0 deficit into a 5-4 lead. I had been getting very frustrated at the end of the third set but in the fifth I went back to what I was doing at the start, to get myself pumped up with positive energy. “Kukushkin played so well that he probably deserved to win”.
Murray has only lost one match in his career after being two sets up, to Argentina’s David Nalbandian at Wimbledon in 2005, but had to dig deep to overcome battling world No6 Nishikori after he had drawn level in the tense fourth rubber.
Teenager Borna Coric defeated Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2 in the decisive singles match to book a spot for Croatia with a 3-2 win. “He’s a man of steel isn’t he?” he said.
On grass in Melbourne, the Bryan twins beat Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt and John Peers 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 to put the Americans in front in the tie between the Davis Cup’s most decorated teams.
I was a little bit calmer in third set.
“It’s a privilege to sit here for a match like that, I’ll remember this one for a long time”. After experiencing it previous year, I thought, you know why not?
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, right, and his partner Nenad Zimonjic talk between points during their Davis Cup World Group first round doubles tennis match against Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Andrey Golubev, in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 5, 2016.
Advertisement
Italy and France became the first through to the quarterfinals after beating weakened visitors Switzerland and Canada respectively.
