By AYYAZ MALIK
Great Britain’s tennis players, wrote themselves into the history books with a 3-1 win over Belgium in the Davis Cup final. The win in front of a partisan Belgian crowd meant for difficult umpiring on a court that didn’t have the Hawk-Eye system.
The win against Belgium, was Britain’s first since 1936, as for Belgium their wait for Davis Cup glory goes on. The Davis Cup final which was over three day’s promised to be a good final and the match didn’t disappoint.
Belgium who would have been seen by many as the underdogs took the first match as David Goffin battled back to a five-set win over Kyle Edmund who took the first two sets.
If Britain thought that their chances of glory were going to end at the final stage, they need not to worry as Andy Murray has never lost a Davis Cup match.
Murray beat Ruben Bemelmans in straight sets to get Britain back into the final. Knowing that the doubles would be a game where the tie could be won and lost, brothers Jamie and Andy Murray beat Belgian duo David Goffin and Steve Darcis in four sets.
That match in the doubles put Great Britain on the brink, all that was left was for Andy Murray to beat David Goffin, which he did in straight sets.
Although the scorecard did show straight sets win for the Scot, there was the odd scare for Murray who had to show real character to come back from a break down in the third set.
The 28-year old also had to battle a very noisy Belgian crowd who must have known that their side needed all the support that they could get.
Every decision which didn’t go the way of the Belgian’s was booed, so Murray had to focus that much harder, but the crowd didn’t matter in the end as Murray secured glory for Britain with a beautiful lob over his opponent.
Andy Murray’s opponent David Goffin had never beaten him in head to head matches before this game and Murray was in no mood to let that change in the final of the Davis Cup, the grandest stage of all.
The Davis Cup win shows a remarkable turnaround for team GB. The British team were on the verge of getting relegated from the world group five years ago. That makes team GB’s win all the more impressive.