IF next weekend’s meeting with Uzbekistan is to be Glasgow’s final Davis Cup tie, then it has still been quite a run. There are no guarantees of any home ties a year at all under the sketchy new reforms which will come on stream from next year to this historic team tennis competition and it is that as much as Andy Murray’s current physical conditioning which suggests Scotland may not see its tennis superstar in competitive action on home soil again.
Murray gets the credit for almost single-handedly dragging Britain to a famous first win for 79 years but when it comes to throwing its weight behind the team’s progress from the lower reaches of this competition, Glasgow wasn’t too bad either. “You have created some incredible atmospheres for me and the team to play in and I will always remember that,” wrote the former World No 1 this week, by way of apologising for declining the chance to participate in a tie against the Uzbeks which has little at stake in it except a seeding for next year’s tournament.
If the Emirates Arena really came into its own as a venue for this event during the glory year of 2015 – it hosted both a memorable World Group first round tie against the USA and the semi-final against Australia – Scotland’s Davis Cup history goes back far longer than that.
Andy was already a top 50 player when his first chance to play a Davis Cup tie in Scotland arose, the match back then slated for Braehead Arena near Paisley rather than the East End of the city. The second singles spot under Jeremy Bates and behind Greg Rusedski that weekend, though, went to Arvind Parmar, an Englishman who was out of the world’s top 200 back then and would never go any higher than No 130. The teenage Murray’s involvement in the tie was limited to a doubles defeat in the company of Greg Rusedski to Ilja Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic. It all meant we were spared an early meeting between him and Novak Djokovic, as Serbia ran out 3-2 winners.
By 2009, with Great Britain in the Europe/Africa Zone Group 1, Andy had started to pick and choose his matches to concentrate on the main tour and it was becoming a source of some tension between him and captain John Lloyd, and even – if newspaper reports were to be believed – some minor disagreement between these two Dunblane brothers
Things started to go awry at Braehead that year with a 4-1 defeat to Ukraine, in which Scotland’s Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins went down narrowly to Sergei Bubka and Sergiy Stakhovsky in the doubles, and there was little in the way of heroics from singles exponents Chris Eaton and Josh Goodall. While Andy did his bit in a 3-2 reverse to Poland at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, things reached a nadir under Ward with a 3-2 defeat to Lithuania in Vilnius. It is a match Fleming recalls well and not just because soon a new Scottish captain was being announced in Andy’s first coach Leon Smith.
“It was unfortunate, I really enjoyed being part of the team under him [Lloyd] and he gave me my debut so I will always be grateful,” said Fleming, now Scotland’s national coach. “Then Leon came in and we played Turkey in Eastbourne. I remember him going a presentation to the guys in the team hotel. The main theme was that we were on a journey back to the World Group. At the time it seemed quite ambitious and optimistic but it has proven to be a reality.”
By July 2011, we were back at Braehead Arena, and so was Andy Murray in a team with a real Scottish flavour. Not only did he defeat poor Laurent Bram with a rare triple bagel, he and Jamie were comfortable victors as a Davis Cup doubles duo for the first time, before he saw off Gilles Muller in the decisive reverse singles rubber on the Sunday. So where else but back to Braehead for the 5-0 semi-final victory against Hungary?
Even minus Murray, Leon Smith’s squad were becoming a juggernaut – and Glasgow was providing the glue. Dan Evans and James Ward played above themselves in front of an enthusiastic Braehead crowd to see talented Slovaks like Lukas Lacko and Martin Klizan off, although there was a rare loss later in 2012 against a Belgium team featuring David Goffin and Steve Darcis. A remarkable 3-2 win against Russia at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry was another step forward, with Andy back out of his temporary retirement to help return Britain to the World Group with a crushing win against Croatia on the clay of Zagreb.
“Obviously the team struggled for a while without Andy,” says Fleming. “There is no doubt about it but it gave certain people a real chance to step up and play. Over the years, a few people have proven themselves in this arena.”
As for the Emirates Arena years, the story is well told, as Andy and Jamie operated in tandem – serenaded out to the strains of Loch Lomond or the Proclaimers – to make Great Britain the No 1 nation in world tennis. While James Ward chipped in with a remarkable 15-13, final set win against the supposedly unbreakable John Isner serve in that first round tie against USA, the semi-final triumph against Australia was the coup de grace. Andy had a hand in winning all three points for his team, masterminding singles wins against Thanasi Kokkinakis and Bernard Tomic, and memorably getting a helping hand from his brother Jamie in a thrilling and ultimately decisive five set doubles win against the big-serving Sam Groth and the evergreen Lleyton Hewitt.
It took Juan Martin del Potro to inflict only the former World No 1’s third Davis Cup singles defeat to prevent Andy from leading Great Britain to a second-successive title, and whether the new reforms – with their World Cup style finals – catch on, Scotland will miss its fix of Davis Cup action if this is the end. Cam Norrie, whose father was born in King’s Park, Jamie Murray and of course captain Smith are the Scottish turns in a team which also includes youngster Jay Clarke, doubles specialist Dom Inglot and reformed bad boy Evans. “The Emirates Arena is a venue which played a key role in our Davis Cup triumph in 2015 and holds a special place in our hearts,” said Smith. “This is a chance to celebrate with our home fans and we can’t wait to put on a great performance to thank them for their support over the years.” With or without Andy, Glasgow should enjoy it while it still can.
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