After being down five match points in the first round of the Olympic men’s doubles competition, Andy Murray and Dan Evans made an incredible comeback to keep Murray’s career alive. They ultimately prevailed over Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel of Japan by a score of 2-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9.
In the beginning of the match, Murray and Evans were behind by a score of 2-6 and 2-4. The match was expected to be finished in a little over an hour. However, the British team fought back and narrowly won the second-set tie-break, which led to a match tie-break that had a score of 10 points. At a score of 4-9, they were trailing by five match points, and Murray was only one point away from reaching the end of his career. However, they were able to pull out a triumph from the jaws of defeat by rolling through seven consecutive points.
At the time of the victory, Murray referred to it as “one of the best recoveries of his career.” He said, “It’s probably up there,” and that it was. There is a good chance that the manner in which we were performing up to that point would not have given any indication that we were likely to return. Certainly, I did not have the impression that I was playing well. There were occasions when Evo played well, but we both have the ability to play at an even higher level than that. And then, right at the very end, everything came together perfectly, and we played some pretty, pretty good stuff.
Even before Murray’s deteriorating physical condition meant that he would not be able to compete in singles, he and Evans had made the decision that playing in doubles would be their top priority in Paris. They had high hopes of winning matches and building momentum in a draw for the Olympic competition that was filled with singles players and partnerships that were unfamiliar to them. They have demonstrated throughout their careers that they are capable of playing doubles of a high caliber, despite the fact that they place a greater emphasis on singles, which results in them being less consistent in the discipline.
The situation, on the other hand, was not right from the start. Both of the players had a bad return and had difficulty making judgments with clear heads, which resulted in lazy mistakes coming from their respective sides of the court. In the key moments, both of them regained clarity and played well together, relying on the enthusiasm from the fans in Court Suzanne Lenglen, which was only half filled. This allowed them to turn the match around.
Evans remarked that it is incomprehensible that he has accomplished this feat in doubles. “The fact that this is his final tournament and he has made a comeback is pretty much the culmination of his career.” Whenever I’m in the locker room, I’m usually saying, “Oh, another long one for him,” and now I’m actually on the court with him. But it would be incredible if we went on to do something really exceptional this week after that. It was something that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Murray also admitted that he has a propensity to recover from seemingly hopeless situations and emerge victorious. In his career, he said, “I know that I turned around a lot of matches that maybe I looked unlikely to win or maybe people thought I shouldn’t have won.” He was referring to the numerous contests that he had won.
There have been occasions when I have possessed that kind of mental toughness and strength, which was undoubtedly called into question at the beginning of my career. With that being said, I am incredibly happy about that aspect of things, especially the fact that I came back from two sets to love more than anyone else in the sport previously.
“I have always done everything in my power to fight and figure out ways to prevail, and I most certainly would not have been able to accomplish that on my own earlier today. We are currently doing well as a team, and Evo has unquestionably been a significant contributor to that success.
As the competition was slipping away from them and they were performing so poorly, Murray grew increasingly angry with how his final tournament was going to turn out. Prior to this, the notion of competing in his final match had not had any impact on his mental state. On the other hand, Murray was completely concentrated during the crucial moments that occurred during the tie-breaks.
I was feeling a little bit during the match since we hadn’t been playing very well in training over the past week and a half, but that wasn’t the case today. As a result, I wasn’t standing to serve at the conclusion of the match, and I was thinking things like, “Oh my God, this is about to be over, and what am I going to do?” I was very clear about where I wanted to return to and where I wanted to serve. I can say that with absolute certainty.
In their next match, which will take place on Tuesday, Evans and Murray will compete against either Sander Gillé and Joran Vliegen of Belgium or Arthur Fils and Ugo Humbert of France. After prevailing over Moez Echargui in his first-round singles encounter earlier on Sunday, Evans is also slated to face Stefanos Tsitsipas, the eighth seed, in the second round. However, after sustaining a big fall, he appeared uncertain about whether or not he would participate in the match.
When questioned about his experience of overcoming a five-match point deficit, Evans chuckled and replied, “No, and it’s unlikely that I ever will.” He definitely won’t. If it happens in the next match, I’m done.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal secured a thrilling second-round match against Novak Djokovic after overcoming worries about a thigh injury to defeat Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. After their last encounter at the 2022 French Open, where Nadal emerged victorious over Djokovic in the quarter-finals, the two tennis giants are set to face off once again. This upcoming match will mark their 60th meeting, a record in men’s tennis.