Murray saves five match points to keep career alive in Olympic doubles

Andy Murray and Dan Evans pulled off an astounding recovery from five match points down in the first round of the Olympic men’s doubles to keep ­Murray’s career alive, eventually defeating Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel of Japan 2-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9.

Murray and Evans had initially trailed 2-6, 2-4 in a match that was on course to be decided in little over an hour, but the British pair fought back and narrowly edged out the ­second‑set tie-break to force a 10-point match tie-break. From five match points down at 4-9, with ­Murray standing one point away from the end of his career, they rolled through seven points in a row to pull out a ­victory from the jaws of defeat.

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Murray described the win as one of the best recoveries of his career. “It’s probably up there,” he said. “Pro­bably the way that we were playing to that stage would have not suggested that we were likely to come back. I certainly didn’t feel like I was playing well. Evo played well at times but for both of us we can play much better than that. And then it just all clicked at the end and we played some pretty, pretty good stuff.”

Even before Murray’s ailing physical condition meant he would not be able to compete in singles, he and Evans had decided that ­playing in the doubles would be their priority in Paris, with high hopes of winning matches and building momentum in an Olympic draw filled with singles players and unfamiliar partnerships. They have shown in their careers that they can play ­quality doubles, even if their priori­tising of singles means that they are more inconsistent in the discipline.

From the beginning, though, things were off. Both players returned poorly and struggled to make clear‑headed decisions, sloppy errors flowing from their side of the court. In the decisive moments, they both found clarity and played well together, drawing on the energy from the crowd in a half-full Court Suzanne Lenglen to turn the match around.

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“It’s unbelievable that he has done it in doubles,” Evans said. “It pretty much sums him up that this is his last tournament and he has [a ­comeback]. I’m always in the changing room ­saying: ‘Ah, another long one for him,’ and now I’m on the court with him. It was something I’ll remember for ever, but it’d be amazing if we went on to do something really special this week after that.”

Murray also acknowledged his tendency to find ways to win from impossible positions. “I know in my career I turned around a lot of matches that maybe I looked unlikely to win or maybe people thought I shouldn’t have won,” he said.

“At times, I’ve had that sort of mental toughness, strength at times, that certainly early in my career was questioned. But yeah, I’m really proud of that side of things really, come back from two sets to love more than anyone in the sport before.

“I’ve always tried my best to fight and figure out ways to come through and I certainly couldn’t have done that on my own today. We’re out there as a team and Evo certainly played a huge, huge part in that.”

While the prospect of competing in his final match had not affected him mentally beforehand, as the contest was falling away from them and they were playing so poorly, Murray became increasingly frustrated with how his last tournament was turning out. In the important moments ­during the tie-breaks, though, Murray was laser focused.

“In training in the last week, 10 days, we’ve been playing pretty well and that wasn’t what happened today so I was feeling a bit during the match, but at the end I wasn’t ­standing to serve thinking, like: ‘Oh my God, like this is about to be over and what, what am I going to do?’ I was really clear about, you know, where I wanted to return and where I wanted to serve.”

Evans and Murray will next face either France’s Arthur Fils and Ugo Humbert or Sander Gillé and Joran Vliegen of Belgium on Tuesday. After defeating Moez Echargui in his first round singles match earlier on Sunday, Evans is scheduled to face Stefanos Tsitsipas, the eighth seed, in the second round but he appeared unsure about whether he would contest the match after a heavy fall.

Asked if he has ever recovered from five match points down before, Evans laughed: “No, and I probably never will. He certainly won’t. If it happens in the next match, I’m out.”

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal set up a blockbuster second-round contest against Novak Djokovic after shaking off concerns around a thigh injury to defeat Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Having not faced each other since Nadal defeated Djokovic on the same court in the quarter-final of the 2022 French Open, the pair will play a men’s record-extending 60th match against each other on Monday afternoon.