Tears shed as Murray guides GB to Cup win

An emotional Andy Murray vowed to use his Davis Cup mindset as a benchmark after clinching a promotion play-off for Great Britain with an impressive display in Glasgow.

Murray shed tears on the Braehead Arena court after his impressive 6-4 6-3 6-1 victory over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller earned Britain a Europe/Africa Group II play-off against Hungary.

The Scot broke down when asked what it meant to play in front of a Scottish crowd, and could not finish his sentence as he wiped away tears with his towel.

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After watching James Ward seal a 4-1 triumph with a comfortable 6-1 6-3 win in a dead rubber against teenager Mike Vermeer, Murray said: “It was one of those things, I wasn’t expecting that to happen.

“Davis Cup is just different to all the other tournaments and that showed. (The Scottish crowd) makes a difference, I don’t get that chance very often.

“It’s the first time in a long time that I got the chance to play in Scotland.

“The last tie I was really ill right before the tie against Serbia, I was sick just before the doubles game.

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“I thought I was jinxed because when we played against Ukraine I got really ill when I came back from Dubai. I lost loads of weight and couldn’t play. I’m glad I was okay this time.”

The world No 4 was in commanding form as he clinched his third straight-sets win of the tie with the loss of just four service points, hitting 14 aces.

As well as serving impressively, Murray put his opponent, ranked 81 in the world, under pressure throughout with his returns, converting five of 15 break-points.

Murray, who beat Laurent Bram 6-0 6-0 6-0 on Friday before enjoying a doubles win with brother Jamie, admitted he had been determined to bounce back positively from his Wimbledon semi-final defeat by Rafael Nadal earlier this month.

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“I wanted to perform well and play my best,” the 24-year-old said.

“It’s very easy to come here after Wimbledon and have a bit of a letdown.

“It has happened to me in the past and I wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again.

“Wimbledon is done. I’m not going to worry about it. I did that before and it ruined three months of my career.

“You can’t dwell on the past, you need to think about how you can improve.

“Thinking about what I should have done doesn’t help.”