Andy Murray and Dan Evans save FIVE match points in incredible comeback at Paris Olympics to delay Scot’s retirement
STUBBORNLY, Andy Murray will simply not go away quietly.
Those that had come to Paris to witness the end of Andy Murray will be disappointed. They will have come back on another day.
What might have been the final match of his decorated career ended up being a rousing comeback – just like he has done countless times before.
Reflective almost of his warrior-like approach to this sport and the fact he does not give in at all.
Just when we thought that might be it, Murray and Dan Evans produced another miracle to prolong his farewell tournament.
They survived FIVE MATCH POINTS to prevail close to two hours of combat.
Britain’s greatest tennis player – perhaps even our finest-ever sportsperson – lives to fight for another day.
A magnificent and memorable 19-year career that saw him reach the pinnacle of his sport will carry on to the second-round.
It did not end after more than 1,200 matches in the dying light of a cool summer’s evening in Paris.
At times, the Scottish superstar and GB compatriot Dan Evans lacked zip and energy and were far too sluggish.
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But somehow, they managed to fight from a set behind against Japanese pairing Taro Daniel and Kei Nishikori to prevail 2-6 7-6 11-9 in the first round.
Hopes that Murray, 37, will have a glorious finale this week in the French capital, on a surface that traditionally aggravates his back, will continue for another few days at least.
Court Suzanne-Lenglen, the people’s court of Roland Garros, was less than half full by the time the Brits came out to face the Asian duo.
Most of the locals had gone out for early dinner after watching home favourite Gaef Monfils lose his singles match to Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
Murray’s previous encounters in the men’s doubles competition at four Olympics had been a disaster.
Three times he lost in the first or second rounds with brother Jamie and then last time in Tokyo, he and Joe Salisbury squandered a winning position to depart in the quarter-finals.
There were even concerns that this finale would be cancelled after Evo “took a tumble and winded myself a bit” during his three-set singles win over Tunisian Moez Echargui earlier in the day.
The Brummie, 34, had to jump in an emergency ice bath and did all he could to ensure he did not withdraw like Emma Raducanu had done to Murray to their Wimbledon mixed doubles plans three weeks ago.
Andy Murray's career timeline
SIR Andy Murray is Great Britain's most successful tennis player of the Open era.
After breaking through in 2005 to reach the Wimbledon third round at 18, the Scot was British No1 by the following year.
In 2008 he reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open, only to fall to Roger Federer in straight sets.
Two more final defeats at the Australian Open to Federer and Novak Djokovic followed in 2010 and 2011 before heartbreak at Wimbledon in 2012.
Despite taking the first set against Federer, he fell 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-4 in front of a home crowd before breaking into tears on Centre Court.
But a month later on the same court he beat the Swiss legend to earn Team GB a gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics.
And weeks after that he broke his Grand Slam duck at the fifth attempt, beating Djokovic in five sets in the US Open final.
In 2013, following another Australian Open final loss, Murray beat Djokovic in straight sets to become the first British man in 77 years to win the Wimbledon title.
Three more losing Grand Slam finals followed, at the 2015 and 2016 Australian Opens and the 2016 French Open.
But in his third Grand Slam final of 2016, Murray won Wimbledon again with a straight sets victory over Canadian Milos Raonic.
He followed it up with his second Olympic gold medal, beating Juan Martin del Potro in a four-hour epic in the final in Rio de Janeiro.
Later in 2016 Murray became world No1 – the first British man to do so in history.
Over his career Murray reached 11 Grand Slam finals, winning three. He won two Olympic golds and a silver (in the mixed doubles alongside Laura Robson).
He will finish his career with 46 titles and over £50million in earnings, making him the fourth all-time leader in earnings.
And – if he can achieve the perfect fairytale ending, as unlikely as it seems – hopefully another Olympic medal in the doubles alongside Dan Evans.
The problem is that Murray and Evans have simply not played much tennis together and a sign of their misunderstanding came in game four.
There was an embarrassing miscommunication when Murray shouted ‘leave it’, which Evans duly acknowledged, and yet the ball bounced on court between the middle of them.
Murray’s serving was not up to scratch and he was the first player to be broken in the first set.
Evans did not offer up much resistance and when he was broken, it felt inevitable that this was going to be over quite quickly.
When a sloppy Murray backhand sailed back wide, it sealed the first set in 30 minutes, and then the former world No.1’s double fault handed an early break in the second set
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They managed to level up at 2-2 and then for 4-4, which they marked both times with joint fist-pumping celebrations as British supporters rose to their feet.
Murray’s clever volley at the net saw the match head towards a Champions’ tie-break.
And even when they were 9-4 down, they never lost hope, managing to pull it back, albeit aided by some horrible chokes by Daniel and Nishikori, winning SEVEN POINTS in a row.
He lives to fight another day and my goodness, he keeps putting us through the wringer and giving us all heart tremors.
Andy Murray is Britain's greatest sports star this century
By Rob Maul
ANDY MURRAY is Britain’s greatest sports star this century.
Okay, that is a bold statement to make.
And Bradley Wiggins, Mo Farah, Ben Ainslie, Lewis Hamilton, Jonny Wilkinson, Mark Cavendish, Tony McCoy or Jessica Ennis-Hill might all disagree.
But show me something else in British sport over the past 24 years who has achieved as much as he did considering the stellar competition he faced across the net.
Show me someone who dealt with such enormous pressure on their shoulders.
Muzza, 37, broke a 77-year wait for a men’s singles Wimbledon champion when he beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets on a hot July day in 2013.
But the suffocating expectations on him from the British public and media was so great he used to suffer from mouth ulcers during the Championships.
The Scotsman – who survived the Dunblane shooting massacre as a kid on March 13, 1996 – rose to the top of his sport through perseverance, bloody-mindedness and a warrior spirit.
Look at his CV and it underlines his claim to be our best ever sports person in the 21st century.
Two Wimbledon titles, one US Open success, two Olympic singles gold medals, a Davis Cup triumph and status as the world No.1 between November 2016 and August 2017.
He did all that in an era defined as a golden period for men’s tennis – his adversaries were legends Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.
As he says farewell at the Paris Olympics – his second ‘retirement’ period after the aborted swansong of 2019 – we should remember all that he achieved.
The fact he came back to the sport five years ago and won titles with a metal hip implant was testament to his personality and character.
Three times Murray was named as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, more than anyone else in the show’s 70-year history.
Some might see SPOTY as an irrelevance these days but it is a good guide of who the British public love – and they voted in their droves to recognise a true hero.