Andy Murray broke down in tears after winning his Davis Cup match on Friday evening as he revealed he was forced to miss his gran’s funeral in order to play in the tournament.
Despite leading in the first set, the Scot lost a tie-breaker against Switzerland youngster Leandro Riedi and had to fight back to claim a stubborn 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-4 victory.
Murray looked emotional in the match, especially after losing the first set, and revealed afterwards that he had missed his grandmother Ellen’s funeral which took place on the same day.
Speaking on the court after his win, a clearly upset Murray said: ‘Today is a tough day for me, it’s actually my… sorry. It’s my gran’s funeral today… sorry.
‘And yeah, I’m sorry to my family that I’m not able. Sorry. That I’m not able to be there. But gran, that one’s for you.’
He added: ‘I spoke to my dad about it and he said, “She’d want you to play”. He said, “Make sure you win” so I did.’
Murray choked up several times during his post-match interview as the crowd at Manchester’s AO Arena cheered and applauded him, before returning to his chair and covering his head in his towel.
The veteran had to come through a very tough test against the 21-year-old Riedi to set Great Britain on their way in their match-up, though Cam Norrie was later beaten by three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka.
Murray’s win was his 42nd in the Davis Cup, which gives him sole ownership of third place on the list of most match wins by a British player in the competition’s history.
‘It’s incredible to get through that one – it easily could have gone the other way,’ said Murray. ‘It was ridiculous the shots he was pulling off, some amazing returning.’
He added: ‘We were expecting [Dominic] Stricker to play, we hadn’t spoken about Riedi at all, so it was a surprise when that changes.
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‘The nature of the way he was going about things made it an uncomfortable match for me.’
With Murray winning and Norrie losing, it then fell on doubles pairing Dan Evans and Neal Skupski to secure victory over Switzerland when they took on Wawrinka and Stricker, coming through a tight contest 6-3 6-3.
Victory over the Swiss does not guarantee qualification for November’s Final Eight, however, with Britain still needing to take on France in their final group match on Sunday to secure a spot.
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