ANDY Murray showed nerves of steel to battle through in five sets against Kei Nishikori then said his scheduled superstar showdown with Novak Djokovic's Serbia in the Davis Cup quarter finals was one for the whole sport to savour.
Timed at four hours 54 minutes, Murray's attritional 7-5, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 victory against the World No 6 from Japan at Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena was the joint-longest of his entire career. It gave the holders of this trophy an unassailable 3-1 lead against the Japanese, and took the younger Murray sibling's run of successful rubbers in this competition to 14, enough to give him outright ownership of the all-time British record which previously belonged to Fred Perry.
More importantly, it demonstrated huge fortitude, coming fresh from the 33-day lay-off which saw him become a dad for the first time. From two sets up, the Scot was pegged back at two sets all, then went behind for the first time when his serve was broken in the opening game of the decider.
"I do think it was a really good effort to come through that," said the 28-year-old, "after going down a break at the beginning of the fifth, and how I was feeling physically as well. I thought I did really well to win that fifth set with everything that has gone on over the last few weeks and over the weekend.
"I was getting very frustrated and panicking a bit at the end of the third when I was struggling physically," he added. "So I went back to what I was doing in the first set, getting pumped up with positive energy and fought for every single point."
There will be much water under the bridge in both camps before the quarter final, an away tie, arrives - immediately after Wimbledon in mid-July. While the motivation of Djokovic is hard to second guess, a match-up with Murray would be the first ever among the so-called 'big four' of men's tennis and the World No 2 has a hunch that Serbia will want it played on a hard court. As imperious as the Serbian World No 1 has been in recent years, he lost his doubles rubber on Saturday and required three minutes longer than Murray yesterday to dispose of Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan yesterday.
"I don’t know how important it is for the competition," said Murray. "That seems just fine. But every time I play against someone like Novak – when the best people in the world play against each other – fans enjoy seeing it, which is why anybody who came to watch the game against Kei would have been entertained. It was a tough match, but when you get the best players in the world playing against each other on a regular basis that can only be good for the sport.
"It is obviously a tough match away from home," he added. "Novak plays great on all surfaces – I am not suggesting he does not play well on clay. But you would think he would get to the end of Wimbledon so going to a clay court is a great change and I don’t think it is [Viktor] Troicki’s best surface or [Nenad] Zimonjic's. All of them probably play their best tennis on hard courts and with the Olympics just a few weeks away, I imagine it would be quite high on Novak’s priority list."
While Britain would have carried chances even in a fifth rubber which pitted Dan Evans against Taro Daniel, captain Smith was happy to be spared that chore. He was near speechless about the performance his star man put in. "I am lost for words at this stage," said Smith. "He is a man of steel, isn't he?"
Nishikori made light of Murray's aches and pains. "I knew he would come back," said the World No 6. "He always acts like that. I tried to focus but he was the better player in the fifth set."
While the Scot will fly out to continue his season at Indian Wells this week, first was the journey back to Surrey to catch the last few hours of Mother's Day with his wife Kim. "It’s Kim’s first Mother’s Day, so it will be nice to see her this evening," he said. "I’ll try to get back for bath time - not Kim’s, the baby’s!”
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