Not today, Andy. Miraculous comeback keeps Murray retirement at bay
Andy Murray went into this year’s Olympic Tennis Event in Paris knowing that this would be his last-ever professional tournament, but the Brit's famous never-say-die attitude was on full show as he and countryman Dan Evans somehow fought back from 9-4 down in the match tiebreak, winning seven straight points, to clinch a memorable encounter 2-6 7-6(5) [11-9] against Japan's Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel.
Murray has played his part in some of tennis’ most iconic Olympic moments in recent years – including two golds in singles at London 2012 and Rio 2016 and a silver in the inaugural mixed doubles in London – but this escape on a Sunday evening in Paris is one to add to the list.
So what goes through the mind of someone like Murray when faced with the end of such an illustrious career?
“Not a lot!” explained Murray. “I wasn't like 'Oh my God, my career is about to be over. What should I do?'. It was like 'Where am I going to serve and how am I going to execute it?'.”
And that says it all really.
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Murray talked about how being one point away from losing any match narrows the focus to the next point, but when it’s whether his career ends or not, his mindset remained the same.
No doubt the crowd played its part in getting the British duo over the line and Murray was keen to stress just how unusual it is to have such a vibrant ambiance for a first round doubles match.
“It shows how much people are supporting tennis being in the Olympics,” Murray said. “They’re coming out to support the doubles and create an atmosphere. That doesn’t happen every week on the Tour, it doesn’t happen at the Grand Slams. I loved it and both of us feed off that.”
Murray and Evans are not scheduled to play again on Monday, with the latter explaining that he might need to consider whether he’s fit enough to continue in the men’s singles event due to a lingering shoulder injury.
The British pair will face the winner of Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen against Arthur Fils and Ugo Humbert. Should the French pair prevail, expert more incredible scenes to come.