Murray chokes again tears at Davis Cup after lacking Gran’s funeral to play match

Andy Murray choked again tears after his Davis Cup victory over Leandro Riedi on Friday as he revealed how he had missed his grandmother Ellen’s funeral to play his singles match. “Today is a tough day for me,” Murray mentioned in his on-court interview as he paused a number of instances with a purpose to compose himself after his win. “It’s actually my gran’s funeral. I’m sorry to my family that I’m not able to be there. Gran that one is for you.”

An emotional Murray had tears in his eyes as he apologised a number of instances to the interviewer and the gang for needing to take a from the chat. But the gang inside Manchester’s AO Arena rallied behind the Brit by cheering him loudly, and so they additionally confirmed their assist after the 36-year-old sat down on his bench and buried his head right into a towel.

The second got here after Murray was requested about ‘Grandma Pat’ within the crowd. The girl, an enormous Murray fan, was watching her first ever dwell tennis match within the stands after celebrating her ninetieth birthday final week.

Asked if he may need a gift he can present the woman, three-time Grand Slam champion Murray mentioned: “I’ve got a few sweaty t-shirts there! If she’d like one of them, I can sort that out no problem.” But he was then overcome with emotion as he mentioned his grandmother.

After shedding the opening set on a tie-break, the Scot got here from behind to win the match in spectacular vogue 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-4 to provide Great Britain a 1-0 lead over Switzerland. The 21-year-old Riedi definitely made Murray work for his win and the two-time Wimbledon champion humbly admitted as a lot within the rapid aftermath.

“Obviously incredible to get through that one, easily could’ve gone the other way,” mentioned Murray. “He was returning… I mean it was ridiculous the shots he was pulling off. Amazing, amazing returning.

“He made it very robust for me however I simply saved preventing and tried to remain targeted and managed to show it round. It’s troublesome as a result of we have been anticipating [Dominic] Stricker to play, who’s a left-hander and I’ve been practising and getting ready for that.

“Then you find out an hour before the match that it was changed [to Riedi] and I’m not really prepared. I’d never played him before or practiced with him before. I knew he was a shot maker but he sustained it for a really long time today and yeah I had to make some adjustments during the match.

“The crew clearly assist so much with that as properly so due to them for serving to me get by way of.” British No 1 Cameron Norrie takes on former world No 3 Stan Wawrinka within the second of three matches.

Great Britain obtained off to a successful begin within the group phases on Wednesday as they beat Australia 2-1. Jack Draper and Dan Evans gained their singles matches in opposition to Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur earlier than Evans fell to defeat within the doubles tie.

Murray and Norrie have been then chosen by captain Leon Smith to play in opposition to Switzerland on Friday afternoon. Norrie and Wawrinka come into their match in an analogous run of type having each been eradicated within the third spherical of the US Open earlier this month.

Wawrinka was crushed by No 6 seed Jannik Sinner 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 whereas Norrie misplaced to Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.