What. A. Day! The Aegon GB Davis Cup Team are one win away from semi-finals after the Murray brothers teamed up to sensationally beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nicolas Mahut in Saturday’s doubles.
With the tie in the balance at 1-1 overnight, Andy was called upon to partner older brother Jamie as the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas clash entered into extremely tense territory.
Despite losing the opener 6-4, the British duo rocked the crowd to produce one of the biggest wins for GB in recent times and fight to a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-1 win in two hours and 49 minutes ahead of tomorrow’s singles.
The brothers last played a tie in the competition together in 2011 while Tsonga was unbeaten in his five doubles matches for France.
Mahut, winner of the doubles at the Aegon Championships, started strongly and the French broke Andy’s serve in the very first game on their way to snatching the opener.
What followed will stick in the memory of every viewer for a very long time. A magic display from both men turned the match on its head at a sunny Queen’s Club.
A break of Tsonga’s serve via a challenge on the review system at 2-1 in the second was followed by three comfortable holds of serve as Wimbledon finalist Jamie served out the set to level proceedings.
With the atmosphere ramped up another notch, the red hot GB Team were on the charge as the crucial third got underway.
They were stopped in their tracks though when both brothers slipped on the court at 5-5 and ended up on the floor in pain, with Andy the worst affected with a hip issue.
An injury time out ensued but physio Shane Annun worked his magic to enable the match to continue into a tie-break which was sealed with a booming return of serve from Andy.
Try as they might, the French could do nothing to stop the flying boys in blue as they raced into a 5-0 lead in the fourth and the win was sealed when older sibling Jamie calmly served it out to spark emotional scenes in the terraces including from mum Judy!
Andy will be back on court tomorrow morning up against Gilles Simon or Richard Gasquet looking to complete the win and send the team through to the last four for the first time since 1981.
Captain Leon Smith said afterwards: “How good was that?! Everyone talked about this being a key rubber, we played it down a bit beforehand but of course it was. It puts us into a good position going into tomorrow.
“I am immensely proud of the brothers and the crowd was phenomenal again so well done everyone.”
Jamie added: “It was great to win. To go out there and play with your brother for your country, as well as having Leon on the bench who has been a big part of our tennis careers from a young age, I think is really special.
“It was a magic day. The crowd were brilliant, the tennis was good, the weather was great and we won!”
Looking ahead to Sunday, Andy said: “I will conserve as much energy as possible and hopefully come out tomorrow and feel good when I get up. It is hard not to feel good after a match like that!
“I will deal with whatever cards I am dealt when I wake up and hopefully play a good match.”