By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday January 8, 2020
Australia battled from the brink to keep their dream of winning the ATP Cup alive on Thursday in Sydney.
Nick Kyrgios and Alex de Minaur saved four match points in an epic 34-point match tiebreak and eventually closed out Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury to send the green and gold to the final four of the inaugural competition.
"Today was probably one of the best moments in my career, definitely," Kyrgios said. "Just making it through to the semi-final, the first-ever ATP Cup in that type of fashion, was pretty special."
The victory led to raucous scenes on court as the jubilant Aussies celebrated the victory while the crowd went wild. It was a magical moment for Kyrgios and De Minaur, who were elected to play the doubles despite being already spent from singles—a move that was debated by the punditry and surely would have been a bone of contention in the press had the Aussies not delivered the victory.
The joyous scenes instantly flooded social media, with footage of Kyrgios and De Minaur rolling on the court together after match point had been won. The victory was further proof that Kyrgios is capable of delivering in a team environment--the mercurial Aussie has made it clear that he relishes the team tennis environment and he backed the sentiment with elevated play in the clutch against Team Great Britain.
Kyrgios commenced the tie with a 6-2 6-2 raking of Cameron Norrie, a match in which the Canberra native was never really tested.
But Dan Evans helped Great Britain turn the tides by producing a rousing effort to edge De Minaur in a three-hour and 24-minute thriller, 7-6(4) 4-6 7-6(2). Evans needed to summon all of his power to outlast his foe in a match that featured a plethora of memorable rallies and kept fans on the edge of their seats.
At the time it was believed that Evans and De Minaur had struck the high notes of the tie, but they were surpassed by the drama of the wild doubles encounter between Australia’s top two singles players and Great Britain’s stalwart doubles specialists.
It felt like Murray and Salisbury might run away with the match, as De Minaur really seemed to be struggling on serve early, but time and time again the Aussies came up with brilliance when they needed it as they powered through the second set to force the winner-take-all tiebreaker.
Great Britain will rue its biggest chance, which came on their second match point at 11-10 in the match tiebreak, when Murray found himself with golden opportunity to clinch the victory but pushed a forehand long of the baseline. Murray shook it off and played well the rest of the way, but Kyrgios and De Minaur kept pace and after each team had saved four match points, a Kyrgios return winner gave the Aussies a fifth.
"I missed that shot basically on top of the net, which was ridiculous," Murray said. "We hung in and we did well. We just couldn't quite get the last point. Yeah, we lost. I mean, that was it."
They would clinch when a Salisbury return of a Kyrgios second serve went long, but needed to endure a Hawk-Eye challenge of the serve before breaking out into celebration.
The Aussies will face the Belgium-Spain winner in the semi-finals on Saturday.