Davis Cup 2014: Murray and GB break new ground with win over USA

Ever since the first Davis Cup was contested in 1900, it has continued to enthral, to test and to spread the tennis word to an ever-greater audience.

By 1907, Australia had gate-crashed the GB/USA party and notched up four straight titles. By the 20s, Japan had become a finalist, and then came the glory years of France—nine consecutive finals and six titles in the era of the ‘Four Musketeers’.

In 1933, control returned to British rackets—the famous Fred Perry decade—but post-World War 2, it was the USA and Australia all the way to the 1970s when new power-bases, built upon super-stars such as Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker, brought Davis Cup glory to Sweden, Germany and Czechoslovakia.

With the new millennium came the Spanish armada of Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer and their plentiful compatriots to take five titles from seven finals, followed by rising forces from the east of Europe—Serbia with Novak Djokovic and the Czech Republic with Tomas Berdych.

Not surprisingly, these were the three nations to top the rankings as the World Group began its 2014 campaign—yet by the end of the first round, two were already beaten. Spain and Serbia, without either of their top-ranked players, did not even reach the third day.

Two more seeds, Argentina and Canada, went the same way. The Czech team did survive, but it proved to be a tough contest against an unfancied Dutch squad. And the once illustrious Australia, ranked No10, was soundly beaten by an impressive France.

But what of those very first adversaries, GB and the USA?

Well this was proving to be a record-breaker for the only nation to have played every tournament in Davis Cup history. Only once in the last decade had GB reached the World Group at all, losing the first tie to Argentina. Indeed GB had only reached the World Group four times in the last three decades and had won a match among the elite 16 just once to reach the quarter-finals in 1986.

But British tennis has been getting used to ticking off new milestones as its own super-star joined the ranks of Nadal and Djokovic: Andy Murray become the first man since Perry to win a Grand Slam—at the US Open—and then the first to win Wimbledon. He took Olympic gold, too.

Now he was part of a GB squad newly returned to the World Group, and would take the fight to American soil, where that very first Davis Cup was contested in 1900. Yes, GB was drawn against its oldest adversary, and was in search of its first win in the USA since—well, since Perry’s day.
Back in 1934, Perry and Bunny Austin won the first two singles rubbers, while the USA took the doubles. Perry, though, sealed the tie with a four-set win, and the next year, he led GB to a clean sweep over the USA to retain the title.

By the time GB next played the USA, in 1937, it would be without Perry, and they would lose, never to win a tie on American soil again—nor the Davis Cup.

In America, in 2014, Murray won his opener again Donald Young for the loss of only six games. Then it was down to James Ward, ranked 175, to take on the former top-20 American, Sam Querrey. Against the odds and a vociferous home crowd, Ward produced a gutsy five-set comeback to take GB 2-0 up.

As anticipated, the Bryan brothers snatched a point back in the doubles, and Murray found himself in precisely the same position as Perry had been 80 years ago—and just like Perry, he took four sets to do the job.

He broke in opening game of the match, but Querrey replied with aggressive tactics, big serving and ventures to the net. A couple of terrific forehand passing shots, and the American broke back.

Murray responded immediately—mindful, no doubt, that Querrey had five tough sets in his legs from his Ward encounter. The Briton broke again, but a pumped Querrey hit a sizzling off-forehand winner to level again at 5-5.

In the ensuing tie-break, Querrey who took the initial lead, 4-2, as they changed ends, but Murray stemmed the attack, using his backhand to wrench control and draw errors. A fluffed American volley and Murray had the first set.

The second set produced some scintillating tennis, as each tried to out-smart the other, and it resulted in another tiebreak. Again, they changed ends with Querrey 4-2 ahead but this time, the American was tactically aggressive, and a huge serve-and-volley finish took the set, 7-4.

That proved to provide the injection of adrenalin that Murray needed. He went up a gear, out-paced Querrey with numerous passing shots on the run, broke twice to lead 4-0, and then again for the set, 6-1.

Querrey put up some tough resistance right to the end but Murray, with an early break, was able to take control of the fourth set, and served out the rubber, 6-3.

This marked GB’s first win against the USA since the 1935 whitewash and its first World Group win in 28 years. To give that some context, it is the first time GB has reached the quarter-finals in Murray’s lifetime.

What makes this year’s Davis Cup campaign still more compelling is just how much the draw has opened up for those who are left.

Only three seeds have reached the last eight: the Czechs and the French are in the top half, Kazakhstan is in GB’s half.

Of the rest, the closest that Japan has got to Davis Cup glory was in that lone final back in 1921, while Germany won the most recent of its three titles more than 20 years ago.

GB’s next opponent, Italy, won its only title in 1976, and Switzerland has never won the title: indeed has reached the quarter-final only three times in the last decade. The Swiss are scheduled, perhaps with Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, to be GB’s opponents in the semis.

There is every chance, in such a draw, that GB and the Swiss could contest a place in the final, in the knowledge that three of the toughest squads will, in the top half, have whittled themselves down to one.

Perhaps it is Federer’s year to win the only silverware missing from his home. But then perhaps it is Murray’s chance to draw a line under that third Perry record.

Quarter-finals: April 2014

Top half

Czech Republic (1) v Japan (in Japan)
Czech Republic R1 team: Radek Stepanek, Tomas Berdych, Lukas Rosol, Jiri Vesely
Japan R1 team: Kei Nishikori, Go Soeda, Yuichi Sugita, Yasutaka Uchiyama

Germany v France (5) (in France)
Germany R1 team: Philipp Kohlschreiber, Florian Mayer, Daniel Brands, Tommy Haas
France R1 team: Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Julien Benneteau, Gael Monfils

Bottom half

Great Britain v Italy (in Italy)
GB R1 team: Andy Murray, James Ward, Dom Inglot, Colin Fleming
Italy R1 team: Andreas Seppi, Fabio Fognini, Simone Bolelli, Filippo Volandri

Kazakhstan (8) v Switzerland (in Switzerland)
Kazakhstan R1 team: Mikhail Kukushkin, Andrey Golubev, Evgeny Korolev, Denis Yevseyev
Switzerland R1 team: Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka, Marco Chiudinelli, Michael Lammer