By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Sunday, July 28, 2024
Andy Murray with Dan Evans of Great Britain rallied over Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel to delay Murray’s impending tennis retirement.
Photo Credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
Andy Murray is not ready to leave the Olympics, and tennis, just yet.
The 37-year-old Murray, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in singles, along with his Great Britain teammate Dan Evans rallied from five match points down to keep their team alive in the men’s doubles event.
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In doing so, Murray delayed his announced retirement from tennis after this year’s Summer Games in Paris.
Murray and Evans completed the unexpected comeback over Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel 2-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(11) in a thrilling final set match tiebreak that looked all but over until the late stages.
The improbable yet popular comeback win had many watching saying it could well go down as one of the highlights of Murray’s illustrious career that includes winning three major singles titles.
Even Murray’s mother, Judy Murray, watching from the stands, thought the match was over.
“I was mentally working out which flight I would get home tonight,” she told BBC Sport. “But you can never write him off.”
Early on, it looked like the Japanese team might run away with the match when they easily won the first set 6-2 and went up an early 2-0 service break in the second set. Murray and Evans started serving better and eventually they forced their way into a second set tiebreak.
After going up an early mini break, Murray clinched the set with a volley winner. With many watching if this would be the last match of Murray’s career, that put the pressure on Evans to step up and keep Murray’s career alive.
That pressure seemed to get to Evans midway through the match tiebreak. At 3-all, Evans at net made a move for a floating ball but instead only touched it with his racquet sending it well wide. That error gave Japan the early break for 4-3. From there Japan started to take control of the tiebreak.
Another Evans error, this time serving a double fault, put Japan ahead 9-3 and seemingly in easy reach of the win. Yet Murray himself would not give up despite trailing by five match points.
Murray, saved one of them with an ace, and then his team clawed their way to 8-9. Evans then took the initiative by hitting a swinging forehand winner to level his team at 9-all.
Evans ripped a huge serve on the next point to give Great Britain its first match point. After Japan committed a final error, the impossible became possible as Murray and Evans embraced and celebrated their victory.
Photo Credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty