PARIS — Andy Murray came to the Paris Olympics knowing it would be his last professional tennis tournament, his ailing body only allowing him to play doubles at this stage.
But the British legend who won three Grand Slam titles and two Olympic gold medals in singles looked as if he would go out on a fairly sad note. Partnering with Dan Evans, who has had his own injury problems this summer, the British team was down a set and a break to Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel of Japan.
Then, after somehow evening things up in a second-set tiebreaker, they were down 9-4 in the deciding super-tiebreaker to 10. It wasn’t a totally impossible situation, but it was starting to look like Murray was about to play the last point of his career.
“The focus becomes narrower, just on that next shot,” I wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, it’s the end of my career what should I do?’ It was, ‘Where am I serving so I can execute?”
And execute they did. The Japanese team, on the other hand, did not.
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In a frantic few minutes, Murray and Evans managed to win seven straight points to get out of Suzanne Lenglen Court with a 2-6, 7-6, 11-9 victory. Evans said he’d never experienced anything like it – and probably never will again.
“I wouldn’t say we stopped believing,” he said. “But we knew we were very far down and we just was going a little bit, a little bit. And then when (Murray) hit an ace at 9-6, we thought there was a chance and got a bit more momentum.
“I’m immensely proud to share the court with him. That’s a proud moment, but he’ll tell you more than anybody he’s here to win. He’s not bothered about retirement just yet.”