Great Britain are one win away from securing a Davis Cup quarter-final against the 2014 finalists France a week after Wimbledon – and there is the slimmest of chances that tie will be played at the All England Club if they can revive the grass in time. Otherwise, it will almost certainly be returning to Scotland, the team’s default home in recent years.
France advanced after Nicolas Mahut and Julien Benneteau beat Germany’s Benjamin Becker and Andre Begemann in straight sets in Frankfurt. Further down the road for Great Britain is the possibility of a final against Serbia, who went through against Croatia when Novak Djokovic stepped in as a late replacement for Viktor Troicki to help Nenad Zimonjic defeat beat Marin Draganja and Franko Skugor 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 for a 3-0 win in the tie. Troicki, apparently, was exhausted after beating the outstanding 18-year-old Borna Coric in the singles on the opening day.
But first things first at this end. After the United States won the doubles here on Saturday to prevent a 3-0 wipeout, Andy Murray was left with the prospect of beating John Isner in the first reverse singles on Sunday to wrap up this 20th tie against the United States.
If he does not, the burden will shift to James Ward – Isner’s conqueror over nearly five draining hours on Friday night – to beat Donald Young, whom Murray outclassed in the opening match. Those would appear to be favourable scenarios for the home team.
The US captain, Jim Courier, tried to allay fears that Isner – who looked physically spent late on Friday night, his eyes downcast and his left-knee heavily ice-packed – would not be ready for Murray, who has won their three encounters. “He had a good night’s sleep and he had a good hit on the court today, and he’s ready to go,” said Courier.
Jamie Murray, however, did not see it quite like that. After teaming up with Dominic Inglot in the doubles for the first time since they were young teenagers in a gallant five-set loss to the Bryan Brothers on Saturday, he was brutally frank about the American team spirit, not to mention Isner’s chances against his brother.
“It’s pretty obvious to me that we’re a much tighter team than the American team,” the elder Murray said after the Bryan twins had won 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-7 (8-10), 9-7 in three hours and 39 minutes in front of the loudest 7,700 Scots any of them had probably ever heard.
“The way everyone on the bench is getting behind us, I didn’t feel that from the American team at all. They weren’t getting up or cheering or anything for the Bryans. Our guys were going hell for leather every point. That helped us get back into the match, dig deep and do something about the situation we were in.”
As for Isner, he said: “I don’t think Isner is going to be exactly back-flipping out of bed tomorrow morning to play Andy. I’d rather be in his shoes than Isner’s.”
Those are words that Courier might post on the American locker-room wall before play if he were looking for an incentive to stay in the tie. Yet it might all have been wrapped up on Saturday – but for the genius of the Bryan brothers.
The singular skill of doubles, the art of combining sublime touch and steady power, combined with an acute sense of court geography, remains the twins’ gift to tennis and, under extreme pressure, they kept the US in the tie.
For an hour, the undisputed and long-reigning world No1 doubles team looked as comfortable as they have done in most of their 103 tournament successes, with 16 majors on that list. They were two sets up and, if not exactly coasting, at least content.
Only twice have the Bryans been taken to five sets in the Davis Cup – and they have lost each time. In their entire career, they have never surrendered a two-set lead – and that proved the more pertinent statistic.
They are still phenomenal if slightly diminished at 36, a unit of syncopated skill and talent who move with practised efficiency to cover their territory like prison guards, letting nothing by. Murray’s serve was malfunctioning, and they cracked it four times in a row; Inglot has never been a delicate flower at the net and some of his volleys were embarrassingly over-beefed, but he made up for it on serve and with some booming groundstrokes from deep.
Gradually, and with the sort of grit Ward displayed against Isner, they worked their way back to parity, taking the third set in style, grinding out a win in the tie-break of the fourth set and then coming agonisingly close in the fifth. A final, tired Inglot forehand drifted long and the deed was done.
Courier said of his bankers: “It’s not a guarantee but it’s as close as you can come in Davis Cup doubles and they just continue to come through.”
As Bob Bryan saw it: “Those guys didn’t give us an inch all day. Jamie returned well and Dominic served well. They made a ton of first serves, cleaned up the volleys when they had to, they played a well-coached match and all credit to them – we had to bring our best stuff to them.”
It was always asking a lot of Murray and Inglot, who have had just a week’s practice, to overcome the excellence of a combination the Great Britain captain Leon Smith called “the best team that’s walked the planet”
