Andy Murray produced his most remarkable Davis Cup effort yet to hold off an inspired Kei Nishikori and send Great Britain through to the quarter-finals for a third straight year, yesterday.

Murray led by two sets to love but faced losing from that position for the first time in 11 years only to grind out a 7-5 7-6 (8/6) 3-6 4-6 6-3 victory after four hours and 54 minutes in Birmingham.

That clinched a 3-1 first-round win over Japan for Britain, with Murray winning all three points for the fourth successive tie and set up a quarter-final tie against Novak Djokovic’s Serbia.

None of the previous ones had been as tough as this as world number six Nishikori, the highest-ranked player Murray had ever faced in the competition, simply refused to lie down.

New father Murray had not played a match for a month prior to this tie and that seemed to catch up with him in the fourth set but he refused to be beaten in front of a raucous crowd.

After three fairly predictable results over the first two days this was the crux of the tie.

Both players have excellent records in the competition.

Murray had only lost two of his 30 previous singles matches, and was unbeaten on hard courts, while Nishikori was 19 from 21 and had not lost since 2012.

But over the first two sets it appeared a classic Murray Davis Cup performance, with the Scot dallying with danger but finding a way to come through.

There was little indication that things were about to take a downward turn in the third set until a double fault gave Nishikori a break point at 3-4. He took it and then clinched the set with a beautifully-threaded backhand winner down the line.

The Scot was like a tightly-coiled spring as he desperately tried to get his country across the line but he could not take his chances, missing two break points early in the fourth.

That revitalised Nishikori, who had begun to look a little weary, and he sapped Murray’s energy and spirit with a run of four straight games.

The two-time grand slam champion roused himself to retrieve one of the breaks but Nishikori served it out at the second attempt to force a decider.

Fatigue was taking over Murray’s body and omens were not good when he dropped serve at the start of the fifth but the noise level reached fever pitch as he hit back with three games in a row.

Nishikori broke back but then Murray slammed a forehand winner down the line at the end of a game that felt tie-deciding.

The same could be said of the next as Murray withstood a barrage of pressure to hold and then created two match points at 5-2, both of which Nishikori saved.

But the Japanese resistance finally ended at the fourth time of asking, beaten into submission by the brilliance and sheer determination of Murray.

Murray said: “The crowd helped for sure. I was struggling a little at the end of the third and a little bit throughout the fourth set.

“There were long rallies, he was pushing me quite far off the baseline. I was trying to keep the points short but in the fifth I had to grit my teeth, fight hard and I managed to get the win.

“I was a little bit calmer in the fifth set. I was panicking a little bit at the end of the third when I was struggling physically, I didn’t quite know what to do.

“In the fifth I went back to what I was doing in the first set. Positive energy, fight for every single point and that was enough today.

“This team has done something special last year and I would like to do something similar this year if we can.”

US progress

John Isner fended off Australia’s Bernard Tomic 6-4 6-4 5-7 7-6(4) to book the United States a berth in the Davis Cup quarter-finals for the first time in three years.

The world number 11’s win on a steamy afternoon at Melbourne’s Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club sealed the tie 3-1 with a singles rubber in hand, while silencing a raucous crowd of yellow-clad fans.

The win will take some heat off US captain Jim Courier, who came into the tie on the back of two first-round exits from the tournament.

World Group
Britain vs Japan 3-1; Serbia vs Kazakhstan 3-2; Italy vs Switzerland 5-0; Poland vs Argentina 2-3; France vs Canada 5-0; Germany vs Czech Rep. 2-3; Australia vs USA 1-3; Belgium vs Croatia 2-3.