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After the yelling and the leaping, the hugging and the sheer disbelief, Andy Murray returned to his seat and acted as if he had found a moment of silence amid the bedlam. Head in his hands, he tried to process the previous minute where his career teetered on the brink and then came roaring back once more, before the tears began. He can’t believe this. Can we? Not a chance. His Olympics show with Dan Evans goes on and the last dance gets another turn. As thrilling as the last time, as fraught with tension, two more match points saved to extend a career by at least two more days.
Because why not? Murray is making up the rules now. When you’ve already saved five match points and seen the end once, you are playing with house money, even if it is potentially the final match of your career.
Murray and Evans summoned the spirit of what they found in that memorable escape in the opening round, first playing as if they had nothing to lose and everything to win, then digging themselves out of trouble again.
Two more match points saved, they won another final tiebreak to beat Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen to reach the Olympic quarter-finals with another wild scoreline, 6-3 6-7 (8) (11/9). A shot at a medal is now just one more win away.
The match tiebreak had the same scoreline as their miraculous first-round escape against Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel, 11-9, but the previous two hours on a sticky, frenzied night on Court Suzanne-Lenglen couldn’t have been more different – until it suddenly was, and the end was there again.
But, to begin with, Murray and Evans had been controlled and calculated, showing considerable improvement. “The first match we were lucky. Today was the opposite,” Murray said. “If I was standing here having lost that match Dan and I would have been really disappointed. We deserved to win today.”
And yet, Gille and Vliegen forced the madness that would follow. At one stage, it threatened to be a reverse of Sunday night as Murray stood once again, the match tiebreak swinging the direction of the Belgian pair. Two more match points. Two more moments that could have been the final moment of Murray’s career. Instead, Evans saved the first with the serve, Murray the second with a forehand winner, guided into open space that was gratefully accepted. Then, as Gille and Vliegen cracked, one more serve from Murray, a final smash from Evans. Jubilation.
Murray said the moment he sat down on his chair and covered his face with his hands was when the wild swing of emotions finally set in. “You’re unbelievably happy and then for whatever reason, I don’t know why, but it’s happy tears,” he explained. “Happy, exciting that we managed to get through another amazing finish. It takes a lot out of you.”
Murray and Evans knew they had to improve having been so close to an opening defeat and the signs were encouraging from the very start. There was more purpose, and far better communication between the pair as Murray directed Evans’s serve by signalling with his fingers behind his back. After coming through an early scare, saving two break points in the opening game, Murray and Evans were much more reliable behind serve, at times rattling through the games.
Murray was snappier, moving better than on Sunday. He and Evans were soon bounding back to their seats a set ahead. The second was far more even and although a tiebreak was familiar ground for Murray and Evans after Sunday night, this one that was full of nerves as they twice stood a point away from victory. Both were saved. Instead, as Murray and Evans were left angered by a net-cord that was missed, Gille and Vliegen stayed alive. Evans, buckling under the pressure that affected both him and Murray, conceded the second set with a double fault.
But to get through another finish where Murry and Evans stood on the brink can embolden their belief. He and Evans will face either the American duo of Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul or the Dutch pair of Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer in the quarter-finals in a contest that is sure to put his fans through the wringer for one more time.
“The next match is important. If we can get through that one then you have a couple of chances to get a medal,” Murray said. “I lost in Tokyo with Joe [Salisbury] from a set and break up and playing extremely well. The way the scoring works in doubles and the way the teams play the margins are so fine now but we definitely have a chance of making it to the semis.”
Evans was already dreaming. “What happened was incredible,” Evans said. “We’re getting close. Really close to doing something pretty special. I don’t think he wants to go home does he?”
