Murray tops Tomic to send Britain into Davis Cup final

However, Murray recovered and with Tomic serving to send the set into a tie-break, the Brit found himself with three set points. Their only previous appearance was in 1904, when a 3-2 win over France gave them the chance to challenge the defending champions, the British Isles, in the final at Wimbledon, only to lose 5-0.

With two-time Grand Slam victor Murray in their ranks, they will be filled with confidence to win a first Davis Cup since 1936 when they go to Belgium for the November 27-29 final.

This was his day and it was never in doubt. But Murray had his break of serve cancelled out, and it wasn’t until the final game that he broke again to take the set 7-5. The setback merely cranked up the atmosphere further but the Aussie kept his cool to level at 5-5.

Dan Evans couldn’t do the same six months later against Bernard Tomic, but by extending the world number 23 to four sets he chipped away at Tomic’s confidence and fitness to soften him up for yesterday.

“I told Daniel to play his tennis”, said Japan coach Minoru Ueda. This time around Murray held on to his serve to take the set 6-3. The U.S.is looking to extend its 26-year stay in the World Group. And then he does it again here.

So the Davis Cup fairy tale continues for Leon Smith, the team cap-tain whose first match in charge – against Turkey five years ago – was played on pain of possible demotion into the fourth tier of the competition, alongside the likes of Armenia and Andorra. “Andy was like a locomotive all weekend”.

“He will play it down because he’s modest”.

“He will play it down because he’s modest but everyone just watches in nothing but the most amount of respect you could ever have for someone”.

In the modern age the last great singles player we all remember regularly excelling on the doubles court was John McEnroe and special factors affected his partnerships. “We owe Andy a lot”.

Hewitt had been on a handshake deal to take over whenever he stopped playing, but backlash led by former Australian Open director and dual-Davis-Cup-winner Paul McNamee led to Tennis Australia putting the position vacant sign out. Unfortunately, the doubles went south after that.

Across the weekend their chant of “Andy we will win”, was set to the same rhythm as “Ali boom-ba-yay” with which African fans backed their man to win one of sport’s most celebrated matches. “I’m very happy and very excited about it”.

“I am satisfied with the way I played and was able to keep a cool head”.

Just as Argentine ironman David Nalbandian did in Australia’s last semi-final in Buenos Aires in 2006, Murray filled the local hero role with aplomb by also securing all three points for Britain. And not much has been made of Jamie but he was fantastic – the best player on the court on Saturday. I’m also asking my fans across the world to join with me to and support UNICEF’s vital work.