Davis Cup: Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury suffered a heartbreaking doubles loss as Great Britain lost to USA 2-1 in a match that ended at 12.58 in the morning at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
Tommy Paul defeated Dan Evans in the opening set, and then Cameron Norrie bravely defeated Taylor Fritz to force a doubles rubber to decide the match.
However, Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury failed to impress the home audience and ultimately lost late at night to Salisbury’s US Open champion partner Rajeev Ram and Jack Sock as the USA grabbed an initial victory in Group D.
The match began somberly to mark the period of sadness that followed the Queen’s passing. Instead of the usual music, a lone piper played before the national anthems, and the British players and support personnel wore black ribbons.
When Murray and Salisbury, who had just five days before won the US Open together, took the court at 10 p.m. against Sock and Ram, they received a thunderous applause.
The British pair prevailed in a drawn-out first set, and they appeared to be in in control of the second set at 3-1, but Ram and Sock rallied to win five of the next six games to tie the match.
More and more spectators started to depart as the clock continued to run past midnight, but a sizable number persisted until the very end, which arrived at 12.58 in the morning when Ram and Sock won 5-7 6-4 7-5 to give USA the tie.
After Evans lost the first game, Norrie had a match that had to be won, but the British No. 1 came back to win 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-5.
He got off to a very poor start, dropping the first set swiftly, and after seeing an early break go, he struggled mightily in the second set.
However, he was able to force a tie-break, take advantage of his opportunity there, and then serve it out on his second attempt.
Norrie, whose Glasgow-raised father David was among the crowd, said: “Honestly I owe it all to the crowd, you guys were amazing. I wasn’t playing my best tennis, Taylor came out firing.
“I managed to hang in there in the second set, I played well in the tie-break and hung tough in the third set again. I loved the atmosphere, it’s just great to be back in Glasgow.
“I knew what I had to do, I had to come out and get a win for the team and I managed to do that.”
