Andy Murray wins Davis Cup singles rubber to level final

Andy Murray kept Britain in contention in the Davis Cup final when he beat Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans in straight sets to leave the two nations level at 1-1 after the opening singles Friday.

It brought his singles record in the competition to 12-2, his two previous losses both coming in five-setters after he had led by two sets to love.

Murray would grab an early advantage by breaking to go 2-0 up in the first, with it seeming like the Scot would walk the set with relative ease.

Edmund’s effort in his debut Davis Cup appearance was an impressive one, but it is Murray who, not for the first time, and not the last this weekend, continues to lead by example as soon as he dons the British colours.

Andy Murray was sacked up during his 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 Davis Cup victory… Edmund seemed only a set away from becoming the first player in Davis Cup history to win a live rubber on debut in the final, but tennis is a odd sport sometimes.

Goffin tested Edmund’s nerve by winning three games in a row, but the 20-year-old passed it with flying colours, clinching the set with an ace. The Belgian saved a set point in the sixth game and broke Edmund in the next one, but it was too late for a full comeback, as Edmund won the opener 6-3.

“The third set he started to get on top of me”.

With the final tied at 1-1, the focus will now switch to Saturday’s potentially decisive doubles when Murray will link up once again with older brother Jamie, before taking on Goffin in the first of Sunday’s reverse singles.

“I believe in myself”, said Murray.

Bemelmans didn’t lack confidence, playing some eye-catching drop shots to an appreciative home support to draw level at 2-2, no doubt trying to tire Murray out for matches still to come. “Every point is. But I don’t think for either team, if you lose it, that the tie is over because I think both teams are capable of winning all of the points here”.

Belgian captain Johan Van Herck pleaded with the German match referee in the third set not to penalise his team for the reaction of their fans, which is a potential penalty available under ITF rules. “I didn’t think they crossed the line, to be honest”, he said.

“When I lost the point, I didn’t know why he’d called 30-love”, Murray said. It was just disappointing that my body couldn’t hold up the way I would have liked it to.

Goffin, who weighs under 11 stone, and is an inch under six feet, isn’t the most physically imposing of players.

But progressively, from the third set onwards, he said that he had started to feel fatigue and cramping in his legs.

Because the surface is slow, I do not believe it will be a classic doubles match in which everyone serves and volleys all the time. I could feel them straining a bit and cramping a bit. That was why I went to speak to the umpire, because literally I had no idea about either of the warnings because you can’t hear anything on the court.

“The experience I’ve had close to that is probably in Paris in my (French Open) first round when I played a French guy in front of a loud French crowd”.

In his first Davis Cup match, he has taken two sets off the world No16, and there were so many positives about the way he played.