LEON Smith, the Great Britain captain, is set to unleash the Murray brothers in Saturday's pivotal doubles rubber of their Davis Cup semi-final against Australia at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow. While the decision had yet to be formally announced after day one of this tie ended with the scoreline level at 1-1, Andy Murray has indicated that he will make himself available to play after taking just 107 minutes to dispose of Thanasi Kokkinakis in Friday's first singles rubber and it is hard to envisage any circumstances where Smith, his first coach, would turn him down.
The World No 3 and his brother Jamie, who has reached the last two Grand Slam finals and is the eighth best doubles player in the world right now, teamed up memorably to defeat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nicolas Mahut in the quarter final victory against France at the Queen's Club in July but this will be their first time playing together in the Davis Cup on home soil. With Aussie captain Wally Masur confirming that veteran Lleyton Hewitt and the big-serving Sam Groth will represent Australia, such an eventuality would leave luckless doubles expert Dom Inglot as the odd man out. It would also mean Andy playing all three days, with his meeting with Aussie No 1 Bernard Tomic scheduled for Sunday lunchtime.
‘It isn’t my decision," said Andy after his 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 win. "It’s up to the captain to decide that. But you know, obviously now I have the option to be picked because that match was quick. I think everyone in the team wants to play. Everyone wants to try to help where they can."
"It won't entirely be up to me," said Smith. "We will just follow the same process as we have done before. We will go back and touch base with Andy and the guys who work with him and hopefully make that decision quite quickly. If he is going to play it is good that everybody knows that and if he isn't going to play it is important that Dom knows that. Whatever combination goes out although it is going to be very very tough we should be confident we can do it. But I imagine when that team sheet goes out and his name is on it, it is like 'Andy's playing'. We will see."
Murray's straightforward win against his practice partner was cancelled out by Tomic's 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (4), 6-4 victory against Dan Evans. The Birmingham-based world No 300 had been a wild card choice but Smith said the manner of his performance had more than justified his selection ahead of James Ward and Kyle Edmund. "For all those that doubted the decision to put him in, I think you could see why I did that," said Smith. "Dan, barring a couple of loose points in service games early in the sets, was absolutely outstanding."
For his part, Masur said he expected the World No 3 to play in a doubles rubber which he expects to prove pivotal in the tie. Belgium and Argentina are also locked at 1-1 in the tournament's other semi-final. "I guess we thought it would be 1-1 after today and it has come to that situation where there is a lot of pressure on the doubles," said Masur. "Everybody knows how pivotal that will be. I would expect Andy to play, no disrespect to Dom Inglot, who has definitely had a good summer. But that is just my opinion and Leon will have his own I am sure."
Andy said he felt that playing for his country always brings the best out in him. "Not just the Davis Cup but the Olympics, as well, would have been some of the best matches I’ve played, in terms of my levels," he said. "So I don’t know exactly what that is. But I just think my results speak for themselves."
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