Emotional night for grieving Andy Murray as Great Britain secure Davis Cup win over Switzerland
A tearful Andy Murray revealed he was forced to miss his grandmother's funeral as he helped Great Britain to a Davis Cup victory over Switzerland on Friday night.
Andy Murray.Murray battled to a 6-7 (7) 6-4 6-4 victory over debutant Leandro Riedi in three hours and 10 minutes at Manchester's AO Arena before breaking down in tears during his on-court interview.
"Today is a tough day for me, it's my gran's funeral today," he said. "I'm sorry to my family that I'm not able to be there but gran, this one's for you."
Murray then returned to his bench where he sat sobbing into his towel.
Asked in his press conference later whether he had considered not playing, the Scot said: "I spoke to my dad about it and he said that she'd want you to play. He just said make sure you win, so I did."
Cameron Norrie was then beaten 7-5 6-4 by Stan Wawrinka but Britain have one foot in the finals week in Malaga in November after Dan Evans and Neal Skupski won the deciding doubles rubber 6-3 6-3.
The circumstances of Murrray's victory made his efforts in coming through another long and tense battle even more impressive.
The 36-year-old had only lost three of his previous 35 singles matches in the competition and never to a player ranked as low as world number 152 Riedi, but the big-hitting 21-year-old produced a performance well above that.
Having seen his gamble to play debutant Jack Draper and Evans handsomely pay off in Wednesday's victory over Australia, captain Leon Smith made use of his options by naming Murray and Norrie as his singles players here.
Murray played singles against Kazakhstan at the same stage last year but only once Britain were already eliminated, making this his first live singles rubber in the competition since 2019 and only his second in seven years.
Switzerland also sprung a surprise by picking Riedi ahead of their number two Dominic Stricker, and Murray admitted that had thrown him having prepared to face a left-hander.
Initially it looked like it might be a comfortable afternoon for the Scot who, after negotiating an 11-minute first game, had a chance to open up a 4-0 lead.
He could not take it, though, and Riedi worked his way into the contest, beginning to cause Murray increasing problems with his big forehand and aggressive tactics.
They earned him a break back when the Scot served for the set at 5-3, and Murray was then unable to take two set points in the tie-break, Riedi converting his first opportunity with his 22nd winner.
The young Swiss, who had never previously beaten a top-50 player, had his tail up and Murray kicked his bag in frustration after failing to break in the third game of the second set.
He finally made the breakthrough at 3-3 only for Riedi to play a blistering return game. Undeterred, Murray engineered another break and this time held onto it with trademark grim determination to level the match.
Ultimately experience won, although it was still nip and tuck, with Murray slamming his racket to the court after handing an early break back in the decider.
He broke again to lead 3-2, though, and quashed Riedi's hopes of a comeback by taking his first match point with an ace.
Murray said: "It's obviously incredible to get through that one, it easily could have gone the other way.
"It was ridiculous the shots he was pulling off, amazing, amazing returning. I kept fighting and tried to stay focused and managed to turn it round."
Norrie was unable to match Murray's efforts, though, his struggles continuing, leaving Evans and Skupski to try to finish the job.
They have established themselves as Smith's preferred doubles pair and produced a fine performance against Wawrinka and Stricker to put Britain top of the group table ahead of Sunday's clash with France.
They will qualify on Saturday if Switzerland beat Australia but victory for Lleyton Hewitt's side would leave them with work still to do.
There are three other groups being played across Europe and, in Valencia, Novak Djokovic was back out on court five days after winning his 24th grand slam title to help Serbia to victory over Spain.
Djokovic's 6-3 6-4 win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina secured Serbia's passage through to Malaga but eliminated Spain, meaning the final eight event will be played without a home team.
Defending champions Canada, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands have also booked their places after winning their opening two matches.
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