Andy Murray again staved off the end of his illustrious career as he and British doubles partner Dan Evans beat Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen in another Paris Games cliffhanger at Roland Garros on Tuesday.
Two-time Olympic singles champion Murray and his partner were cheered on by sizeable British contingent on a hot and muggy night on Court Suzanne Lenglen as they won 6-3 6-7(8) 11-9 to reach the quarter-finals.
But the score did not tell the story.
The British duo squandered two match points in a nerve-jangling second set tiebreak and looked to be heading out as the Belgians moved ahead in the third set, leading 9-7.
But for the second match in succession, Murray and Evans simply refused to accept defeat and hit back to win with Evans banging a winning smash to spark delirious celebrations from the British pair with Murray looking close to tears.
In the previous round Murray and Evans beat Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel in astonishing fashion, saving five successive match points in the final set when they trailed 9-4.
The 37-year-old former world number one, a three-time Grand Slam champion, will retire after the Olympics, but the ending to the final chapter of his career could still be a golden one.
“What happened again was incredible, we’re getting close,” Evans told reporters. “Really close to doing something pretty special. I don’t think he wants to go home.”
Unlike against the Japanese in round one, when Murray admitted they were lucky to get through, the British duo looked in charge for most of Tuesday’s match, only to falter near the end.
But once again they found some magic when required.
“We know we need to perform at a really high level in a couple of days time to go through but you build confidence by winning matches like that,” said Murray, who won singles golds in 2012 and 2016 but pulled out of the singles this time.
“I think your opponents see that you’re coming back when you’re behind and that builds belief. But you can’t have that mentality of like, this is just going to happen,” Murray said.
“We need to be switched on for the next one.”
Murray and Evans will next play either US duo Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz or Dutch team Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer.
