Retirement can wait: Murray, Evans save 5 M.P.s to advance at Olympics
pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-murray/mc10/overview'Andy Murray/a's career was as close to being over as possible Sunday evening, but then came one of the early moments of magic of the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/paris/96/2024/results'Paris Olympics/a./p
pThe former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniel-evans/e687/overview'Daniel Evans/a of Great Britain saved five consecutive match points from 4/9 in the Match Tie-break before defeating Japan's a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taro-daniel/da81/overview'Taro Daniel/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/kei-nishikori/n552/overview'Kei Nishikori/a 2-6, 7-6(5), 11-9.nbsp;/p
pldquo;We just tried to play every point at the end. I thought we were done,rdquo; Murray said. ldquo;Evo came out with some good returns. I had a couple good serves at 6/9 to get us to 8/9. Just unbelievable. Irsquo;ve never played a doubles match like that where Irsquo;ve saved that many consecutive match points. A special place to do it obviously.rdquo;/p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"
p lang="en" dir="ltr"WHAT A FIGHT ????a href="https://twitter.com/andy_murray?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@andy_murray/a and Dan Evans save 5 match points to win their first round battle in a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Paris2024?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#Paris2024/a ????a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Olympics?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#Olympics/a a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/tennis?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#tennis/a a href="https://t.co/h8PwdRfpgP"pic.twitter.com/h8PwdRfpgP/a/p
mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1817632955613032655?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"July 28, 2024/a/blockquote
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pDaniel and Nishikori were in control for most of the match, leading 6-2, 4-2. But Evans and Murray continued to battle on and ultimately overcame a seemingly insurmountable deficit in the momentum-filled Match Tie-break./p
pldquo;Itrsquo;s amazing. I guess at 4/9 I just didnrsquo;t want to miss the shot to end his career,rdquo; Evans said with a laugh. ldquo;It sums him up. Itrsquo;s amazing. Honestly the best feeling for me to be a part of that. To hit a forehand down-the-line, which he was probably not that happy that hersquo;d gone cross on the last one. Just couldn't believe it when I saw it.rdquo;/p
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pEvans and Murray, who lost in the first round at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/roland-garros/520/overview'Roland Garros/a earlier this year, will next play eighth seeds a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-fils/f0f1/overview'Arthur Fils/a/a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ugo-humbert/hh26/overview'Ugo Humbert/a or Belgians a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sander-gille/gd32/overview'Sander Gille/a/a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/joran-vliegen/v895/overview'Joran Vliegen/a. Evans had won a three-set singles match earlier in the day./p
pThe Britons also competed together last year in Washington (l. in the quarter-finals) and in the 2017 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/indian-wells/404/overview'BNP Paribas Open/a at Indian Wells (l. in the Round of 16)./p
pldquo;I think both of us have loved competing for our country over the years. Wersquo;ve been a part of the same Davis Cup team for many years. Dan has a huge passion when hersquo;s competing as part of a team. Both of us wanted to do this together for my last tournament,rdquo; Murray said. ldquo;Irsquo;ve loved being part of the Olympics, itrsquo;s an amazing event. Itrsquo;s meant a lot to me over the years and to get to finish playing here one last time in the Olympics is extra special. /p
prdquo;Just glad we live to fight another day because it wouldrsquo;ve been obviously disappointing to lose today. But we keep going, letrsquo;s see where we get to.rdquo;/p
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