Andy Murray and Dan Evans pull off another Paris Olympic tennis great escape (2024)

How many more times will Andy Murray put tennis fans through the wringer at this year’s Olympics?

At 7-9 in a match tiebreak, it was written that Andy Murray’s tennis career had come to a close in Paris. But for the second time in 48 hours, the three-time Grand Slam champion and double Olympic gold medallist and partner Dan Evans pulled off a miracle, to take a 6-3, 6-7(9), 11-9 win over Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen in the men’s doubles.

Murray and Evans, who saved five match points to defeat Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel of Japan, looked set for a routine victory in winning the first set at a clip 6-3, taking a 3-0 lead early on and never relinquishing an opportunity to Gille and Vliegen.

The Brits had a chance to press home their advantage at the start of the second set when they opened up a 15-30 lead on the Vliegen serve, but the Belgians dug in and held for 1-0. The rest of the set was dominated by serve, with the only chances for either pair coming for Great Britain with Belgium serving at 4-4. But Vliegen saved both break points with excellent serves out wide.

A tiebreak had long felt inevitable by the time it arrived, and after so few points against the serve during the set, suddenly both teams were having some joy with their returns. There was nothing to separate the two teams, but it was Britain who moved to 6-5 and a match point chance. They couldn’t take it, nor could they at 8-7 when a mish*t volley from Gille just landed inside the baseline. There was drama on the next point when Evans missed his return, but he and Murray were convinced the serve had been a let. With the machine to pick up service lets not going off, the chair umpire went with his original call. Evans then double-faulted, Gille and Vliegen had the set and the Brits were into their second consecutive match tiebreak.

That went to 4-4 after a combination of strong serving and mish*t returns from both sides.

Then a blitzed forehand return off an Evans serve put the Belgians up 5-4; two simple volley errors sent things back Britain’s way at 6-5. As with the back-end of the second set, nerves and mish*ts were creeping into proceedings, and Murray duffed a fairly routine backhand into the net for 6-6 as the pairs changed ends.

Vliegen then fizzed another return into Evans at the net, going up 7-6 and with a mini break, before pulling a wide forehand into the tramlines to take things to 8-6. A brilliant Evans return sent things back to 7-8, before Belgium moved to two match points with a brilliant return of their own from Gille. 9-7. Things looked at an end for Murray, who pulled out of the singles draw to focus on the doubles, just as he did at Wimbledon a few weeks ago.

Well, at an end they were not.

Evans banged down a first serve, just as he had done against Japan, to salvage one. It was then down to Murray to prolong his own career. Gille flubbed a service toss, before serving into Murray’s forehand. The return screamed over by millimetres and the next shot was in the net. 9-9. A change of ends. Gille to go again. A second serve. A bullet from Evans straight at the net player. 10-9. Murray to serve. Murray to prolong things all over again. Murray to send the ball down the T to draw the short return, for Evans to smash it away into the crowd and embrace his partner and run down the sidelines, to sit and soak in the absurdity of what they had done, again, to keep this run and 19 years of tennis going for at least one more match. 11-9, for the second match tiebreak in a row.

Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul of the USA or Robin Haase and J.J. Rojer of the Netherlands next. It matters little. The show goes on.

‘Murray has almost surpassed himself for sheer ridiculousness’

Analysis from Charlie Eccleshare

Throughout a tennis season so dominated by talk of retirement for various players, we’ve heard again and again that you can’t script your farewell. No matter how good you are or were, there are just so many variables that are out of your control. Try as these players might, it’s better to accept that your final match or tournament might end up not being that satisfying. Take one of the greatest ever, Roger Federer, whose final match was a doubles defeat with Rafael Nadal at the Laver Cup, after his final action on the singles court was a 6-0 bagelling by Hubert Hurkacz at Wimbledon.

These things happen, and ultimately no one really cares.

A similarly underwhelming exit looked on the cards for Andy Murray, either at the Olympics or at Wimbledon earlier this month, but instead something truly extraordinary has happened over the last few days. This final tournament has become pretty much the perfect farewell for Britain’s greatest player of the modern era. No matter what happens from here, Murray, along with his partner Evans, has produced two trademark acts of escapology, avoiding defeat when multiple match points down. Murray, the ultimate fighter and winner of dramatic contests, has almost surpassed himself for sheer ridiculousness in his first two matches at the Paris Olympics.

We’ve always known how dogged and bloodyminded he is, but his refusal to be beaten and have his career ended over the last few nights has been an astonishing story. Saving five match points on Sunday was one thing, to do it again two days later really is remarkable — even for Murray and all the Houdini acts he’s pulled off in his career.

Is he fated to go all the way and win a medal with Evans here? Or have the pair been flattered by a relatively reasonable draw? We’ll find out over the course of the rest of the week. But whatever happens from here, Murray has surely more than satisfied his urge to feel the rush of competition one last time. And in so doing, he has provided his many supporters with a few more indelible memories. You can’t script your farewell? That’s true, but if you’re Murray, you can still have one hell of a send-off.

(Top photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)