ANDY Murray has revealed that he carried Great Britain back into the Davis Cup final for the first time since 1978 despite suffering from a bad back. The Scottish World No 3 won his third point of the weekend with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 win against Australia's top player Bernard Tomic yesterday to give Britain an unassailable 3-1 lead in their semi-final tie at Glasgow's Emirates Arena. While Dan Evans then went down 7-5, 6-4 to Thanasi Kokkinakis in a dead rubber, it means Leon Smith's side go through to the showpiece match of world tennis for the first time in 37 years, a tie which will be an away match against Belgium from November 27-29. The last time a British side lifted the trophy was during the heyday of Fred Perry in 1936.

The achievement of the 28-year-old, who made short work of Kokkinakis on Day One then partnered his brother Jamie in that epic five-set win against Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth on Saturday, was made even more remarkable by the pangs in his lower back which had dogged him since Tuesday night. For the record, it was unconnected with the problem to the same area which caused him to have major surgery back in September 2013.

"I wasn’t concerned about how much I had left in the tank," said the World No 3, "I was more concerned about my back. My back had been giving me a lot of trouble this week, the few days before the tie as well so that was the thing I was most concerned about.

"It’s nothing to do with the previous issues I had with my back, it’s a completely different thing," he added. "It was absolutely fine during US Open and during that stretch it was absolutely fine. Then I took 5 days off and then I practised Sunday, Monday, Tuesday here and felt absolutely fine but then on Tuesday night once I’d finished practicing and cooled-down, my back was extremely sore.

"Sometimes when you have played a lot of tennis, or any sport, then you take a break, your muscles sometimes stiffen and tighten up. Then when you come back you can have some issues. Maybe it was to do with that."

Leon Smith, the Glaswegian who has quietly guided Great Britain from the brink of relegation to tier three of Euro/Africa Zone to the final in his five-year stint as captain, stressed the team effort involved but paid special tribute to the World No 3 for playing through the pain barrier. The about turn in the nation's fortunes in this competition began when the World No 3 was making himself unavailable but it has accelerated since his return.

"It’s been absolutely incredible when I think back to how this team started against Turkey at Eastbourne," said Smith. "But when Andy is here it has just made a huge difference to us. His commitment to the team has just been absolutely incredible. He’ll play it down because he’s modest, but we owe Andy a lot for what he brings to the team. He’s been quite open there, saying how his back felt. It’s incredible that he went out there and did all three days. It really is."

Lleyton Hewitt, who has played his last Davis Cup match ahead of his retirement from the sport after January's Australian Open, joined the tribute. "You have to be a special kind of competitor to lay it on the line day in day out," said Hewitt, who is likely to be named Australia's next Davis Cup captain. "It takes someone like Andy to be able to do that."