Andy Murray says Davis Cup final doubles won't decide tie
Sunday 29 November 2015 13:51, UK
Andy Murray played down the importance of Saturday's doubles rubber in the Davis Cup final after pulling Great Britain level at 1-1 on the opening day in Ghent.
Murray beat Ruben Bemelmans 6-3 6-2 7-5 on Friday to level the contest after David Goffin has earlier come from two sets down to beat British youngster Kyle Edmund.
It left the tie evenly poised heading into the doubles, which so often proves crucial in a tie's outcome. Indeed, only five of 42 finals since the abolition of the competition's challenge round in 1972 have been won by the team which lost the doubles.
Looking ahead to Saturday's clash, which will see Murray partner brother Jamie, said: "I don't think it's as important as in some of the ties. I believe if we lost the doubles, we could win two singles on Sunday."
He suggested either Edmund or possible stand-in James Ward would have a good chance of beating Steve Darcis, the man who looks to have been held back by the hosts for a potential final rubber.
"Kyle could have won today," added the world number two. "If he was to play at that level against Darcis, that's not an easy match for Darcis.
"The fifth point, the fifth rubber in a Davis Cup final. Darcis or James or Kyle, whoever plays that match, will never have experienced anything like that before. So it's not a gimme. It's not like James can't win that match. Darcis would be incredibly nervous.
"It's an important match obviously, every point is. But I don't think for either team, if you lose it that the tie is over because I think both teams are capable of winning all of the points here."
Murray also said he did not expect fatigue to play a part over the weekend, his opening match having only taken two hours and 24 minutes.
"The court's fairly quick so there's not loads of long rallies," he added. "It's not particularly warm in there, so it's not that physically demanding really.
"We're also taking sometimes like 45 seconds between points to wait for the crowd to calm down and stay quiet, which gives you longer to recover between points, which is fine on a weekend like this for me."
Murray was agitated at times against Bemelmans and was handed two warnings for verbal obscenities by umpire Carlos Ramos, the second leading to a point penalty.
However, he said he had not heard the first and seemed baffled by the whole situation.
"I wasn't aware I'd been given the first warning. I didn't hear it and I had no idea. So when I lost the point, I just went up and asked the umpire why. He said 'for a second warning'. I didn't know I had the first one, so it was a bit confusing."
He also played down the crowd booing him when he was waiting to serve.
"I didn't think they crossed the line, to be honest. But as the server, I'm not going to serve obviously when the crowd are making any noise because it's off-putting."
Captain Leon Smith was pleased with his leading player's display.
"I thought Andy was, yet again, very, very good in handling what he just explained with the environment, the crowd, and an opponent who clearly has nothing to lose that was swinging away.
"Kyle played very good tennis. But, of course, the experience of David and also the environment at some point did take a toll. He probably had to win it in straight sets or even in four.
"It was tough. But I think it's important for him to realise the level he can obviously play at, and now keep building on that. He did play very, very well for those two sets."
