Argentina beats champion Britain to reach Davis Cup final

Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer observes the ball during his game against Great Britain’s Dan Eva …

Cilic levelled the tie on Friday when he saw off Lucas Pouille and he paired up with Ivan Dodig to give Croatia the lead with their win in the doubles against Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut on Saturday.

Argentina extend their lead over Great Britain to 4-1 and book their place to meet Croatia in the Davis Cup Finals after knocking out the defending champions Great Britain.

This was the South American nation’s 150th tie, in its 11th World Group semi-final since 2002.

The duo both reached career-high rankings earlier this month after strong displays at the US Open and are knocking on the door of the world’s top 50.

While Kyle Edmund didn’t turn in his finest performance in Scotland when he lost to Guido Pella last Friday, he has developed quickly this year. He broke for 31 with a forehand victor down the line and recovered from 0-30 when serving for the set to level the match.

Despite falling behind to Evans, the 29-year-old Argentinian recovered to win 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4, justifying the decision of team captain Daniel Orsanic to field him ahead of del Potro. However, he struck Mayer on one of his inspired days.

The 53rd-ranked Evans still went down 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to Mayer, who is ranked 114th. Fight for every point, chase everything down.

Mayer was emotional on court after overcoming a rough period of injury. Evans began soundly, but was broken in the fourth game. Mayer levelled, 6-3.

Only adding to the din was Murray, who after going through his warm-down routine, and fulfilling his post-match media commitments, joined this late in the opening set.

The clock was now close to two hours, but the same Mayer who had been stretching and grimacing over his tight quadriceps at practice around six hours before looked as fresh and vital as ever. But he was not about to loosen his grip on this.

Results (semifinals): Argentina: 3 bt Britain: 2.

Murray played all three rubbers in a bid to continue their title defense.

Britain hadn’t defeated Argentina in 88 years but their hopes of ending that run were boosted before Evans took to the court following the news that he would be facing Mayer instead of Del Potro.

“I am very emotional”.

The Scot said: “I’ve never really had any muscle injuries before”.

It all came down to a fifth and deciding rubber, and in the end another of Davis Cup’s litany of unlikely heroes rose to the challenge.

“I knew I was going to be in some pain this weekend and I spoke to my team about that it was going to be really hard”.

The winners will face Croatia in November’s final.