Britain reached the Davis Cup final for the first time in 37 years yesterday as Andy Murray outclassed Australia’s Bernard Tomic in straight sets to give them an unbeatable 3-1 lead.

World number three Murray had teamed up with brother Jamie to win a thrilling five-set doubles rubber against Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth on Saturday to leave the hosts needing to win just one of yesterday’s reverse singles.

The 28-year-old, who became the first Briton to win the Wimbledon men’s singles in 77 years in 2013, duly delivered his third point of the match, beating an increasingly dispirited Tomic 7-5 6-3 6-2 to wild cheers from a partisan Glasgow crowd.

In doing so, and setting up a final away to Belgium, Murray improved his record in Davis Cup singles to 25-2 – an impressive contribution and the main reason Britain have risen from the depths of the competition in 2010 to within one victory of their first title since 1936.

“Obviously, winning for your country and your team-mates means a lot. The crowd were unbelievable from the first ball to the last,” Murray told the BBC.

“I didn’t feel great the whole weekend to be honest, I’ve been struggling with my back, but I just tried to disguise it. We’ve got everyone here, mother, father, wife, grandmother, mother-in-law, aunties and uncles.”

Murray will need to summon one final effort at the end of the season when Britain will face Belgium, probably in Brussels, on November 27-29 after they edged past Argentina 3-2 in a tight semi-final yesterday.