and CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand
Andy Murray sparked a British Davis Cup quarter-final revival by pulling his team level with France on Friday.
World No. 3 Murray, the only top-10 player on duty in the quarter-finals, kept Great Britain in the hunt for their first semi-final place in 34 years as he defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-6 (12/10), 6-2.
Photo: Reuters
Murray was under pressure to win the second rubber of the day on the grass courts of Queen’s Club in west London after Gilles Simon had given last year’s runners-up France the perfect start with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 rout of James Ward.
Murray’s victory — his 11th in 13 meetings with Tsonga and his 22nd in 24 career Davis Cup singles rubbers — also raised the possibility that he might play alongside brother Jamie instead of Dominic Inglot in the doubles.
“I always want to play, but I’ve had a long few months,” said Murray, playing for the first time since his Wimbledon semi-final loss to Roger Federer seven days ago. “It’s about doing what is best for us to win the tie and also about being fresh for Sunday [today’s reverse singles]. Hopefully I can play.”
In Ostend, Steve Darcis and David Goffin gave Belgium a 2-0 lead over Canada.
Darcis saw off world No. 272 Frank Dancevic 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 before world No. 14 Goffin swept past Filip Peliwo, ranked 491, in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Belgium are well-placed to make the semi-finals for the first time since 1999, while Canada were already hamstrung by playing without their top two singles players, eighth-ranked Milos Raonic, who has yet to fully recover from a foot injury, and Wimbledon quarter-finalist Vasek Pospisil.
The winners face either Argentina or Serbia for a place in the final.
Serbia, the 2010 champions, are without world No. 1 and recently-crowned Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, who opted to rest rather than travel to Buenos Aires.
Four-time runners-up Argentina capitalized on his absence with world No. 22 Leonardo Mayer seeing off 87th-ranked Filip Krajinovic 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, while Federico Delbonis beat 20th-ranked Viktor Troicki 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in the second singles rubber.
In Christchurch, New Zealand took a 2-1 lead in their tie against India with a comfortable doubles win yesterday, as India’s Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni struggled to return serves.
Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniell’s 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 victory put New Zealand into a strong position going into the reverse singles.
At stake for the winner will be a chance to enter September’s play-offs for a place in next year’s World Group.
Sitak and Daniell were rarely troubled, despite being taken to a tie-break in the second set and needing four attempts at match point before getting across the line.
India came to New Zealand with high expectations and Amritraj was disappointed with how the doubles went.
“I certainly didn’t expect it, especially not to go down in three sets. I thought it would be at least four or five and could have gone either way is what I felt before I came in,” he said.
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