After the doubts that had lingered over who would play in the Great Britain doubles team, such a comprehensive victory seemed unlikely. Well, it would have done if the Murray brothers weren’t playing. The final score looked commanding, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, and was achieved in one hour and 53 minutes.
Continuing in the vein of form that had won Britain the Davis Cup, the season before, Andy quickly settled any nerves with a demonstration of blistering serving. Any serves that the opposition could get a racket on failed to be returned into play, as the Scotsman consistently served at over 130mph, and found the lines, a feature of his game that had been so crucial in his victory over Taro Daniel on Friday. He only lost two points on serve in the first set.
The match remained on serve until the eighth game, where the Murray brothers became visibly more aggressive in their style of play, stepping well inside the baseline on second serves and pressuring the young Japanese duo with powerful ball-striking. Nishioka’s serve wobbled under this pressure, and a double fault was followed by two brutal passing shots, that were whipped down the line, which sealed the telling break of serve. Murray held his serve to take the first set in just 34 minutes.
Great Britain maintained this pressure at the beginning of the second set, immediately breaking courtesy of some brilliant backhand passing shots that fizzed down the line, past the helpless Japanese players. Uchiyama’s serve continually found Andy Murray’s hitting zone, which made it difficult for them to grab the upper-hand in the early stages of rallies, and Andy seized on the opportunities that were thrown his way.
This break was compounded by another in the seventh game, where both teams displayed the skill they possess. Japan’s Nishioka did well to be one point away from holding his serve. With the score level at deuce, he drilled a forehand that sniffed at the ankles of the onrushing Andy Murray, who couldn’t muster a response. But the lack of experience eventually told, as Japan missed a routine smash to hand Great Britain the double break. Jamie Murray, who played consistently well alongside his brother, unfalteringly served out the final game of the set, dropping only a single point.
Finding themselves two-nil down against two of the world’s best players, it would have been easy for the inexperienced Japanese pair to lose focus and see the match drift away from them. Instead, they showed some of their best plays in the third and final set. The first game was seized with a clinical volley, after some brutal hitting had engineered space to take advantage of, as the Murray brothers frantically defended.
It was only in the ninth game that Great Britain finally secured the breakthrough. A combination of some destructive returns that forced Japan to defend and sloppy errors that gradually creeped back into the away team’s game, Great Britain got the crucial breakthrough that would lead to a decisive victory.
Great Britain now have a 2-1 lead in the tie, going into the final two rubbers. And if Andy Murray can maintain the consistency of serve that has been fundamental in his first two victories of the weekend, he will certainly be well placed to beat Kei Nishikori in what could be the deciding match.
Highlights from the post- match press conference:
Q. What did you think of the play of the Murray brothers today?
Nishioka: Yeah, Jamie has a grand slam title, and Andy has many grand slam titles in the singles. Well, today we got so much pressure from Andy’s returns, we didn’t know how we could take anything from his points. Also Jamie was always at the net and was moving every point and he didn’t miss the ball easily. They both return good too, so it was tough for me to keep my service game every time. So in each game we were under a lot of pressure.
Uchiyama: We were thinking Jamie and Andy would play doubles, so we were ready to play them. We felt a lot of pressure from Andy, especially from his returns, and also we wanted to make more chances on the return but they were very steady at the net. It was a very difficult match for us.
Q. Andy how do you feel after that- and is it pretty good preparation for tomorrow?
Andy Murray: Yeah I feel fine, I think you know it’s nice to win a match quite quickly, as even though yesterday’s match wasn’t too long if it goes past the third set it adds up. And with tomorrows match as well, I need all of the energy I can have for the match, and go into it with no niggles and I won’t be sore.
Q. Leon is the tie going how you would of expected?
Leon Smith: Well if you look at the rankings yes, but if you look at yesterday, dan could have been in a fourth, fifth set match. Lots of people look at Andy vs Kei, but we’ve got the fifth match and that’s a good position to be in.
Caspar Goodwin.
