Murray sends Britain into Davis Cup final

As stadium sound systems rarely use turntables these days, we can assume that the DJ at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena had his mouse icon hovering over the Proclaimers’ iconic 500 Miles at around 4.15pm yesterday.

The British number one took to the court in Glasgow knowing that victory over Australia’s Bernard Tomic in the first singles match of the day would give Great Britain an unassailable 3-1 lead in their semi-final.

Andy Murray faces Bernard Tomic in the fourth rubber in the early afternoon, knowing victory will be enough to see Great Britain through to the final.

“Andy was scintillating in his singles but I can tell you he won’t be quite as clinical and won’t feel as good as he did on Friday, that’s for sure”.

But the Australians – who were playing not only for a place in the final but to give Hewitt’s career the flawless send-off – would not go away. Even in the final set, they clawed their way back from a 0-3 deficit to square things up at 4-4.

Murray had no intention of letting that streak end. They have both lost grand-slam finals this year, Andy once and Jamie twice, and they were not going to be denied again. Each of them struck a clean return victor under the most extreme pressure and against a wickedly speedy delivery (although the first shot, from Jamie, could have been taken out of the air by Groth if he had not mis-takenly believed that it would fly long).

The world number 23 said: “It was very emotionally tough out there”. However Croatia looked set to level the match when play resumes Saturday – Croatia’s Borna Coric led Joao Souza 6-4, 7-6 (5), 4-1 (30-40) when the match was suspended by rain Friday.

Older brother Jamie, the doubles specialist, said: “We let it slip a bit but we kept fighting and got right back on it. It was so good, it was so noisy, it was magic. Obviously now I have the option to be picked as my match was quick”, Murray said. “It’s up to the captain to decide that but I now have the option to be picked because this match was quick”.

Smith felt the surprise performance of Evans in his encounter with Tomic justified his shock selection ahead of regular James Ward.

By the closing stages, he was desperately mouthing, “I can’t hold!”

“Once I was out there I was just trying to play each point, fight as hard as I could on his service games and get as many balls back in play as I could”. Or does he play Hewitt or Groth like he did in Darwin against Kazakhstan? I expect today to be closer with Tomic an improved player over the last three years.

He seemed powerless to resist after that and despite his best efforts, could not match the intensity shown by Murray who seemed inspired by his home crowd.

In Belgium, two nations who had never won this trophy-the home country and Argentina-were locked at two rubbers to one.

The other semifinal between Belgium and Argentina at Brussels was also level at 1-1 after the opening singles, while Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal helped put Switzerland and Spain, respectively, into commanding positions in their playoffs.