Sir Andy Murray’s career was rescued from the brink as he and Dan Evans saved five match points to win their doubles opener at the Olympics.
The British tennis great said before the tournament it would be his last ever competition.
In one of his best comebacks, Murray and Evans recovered from losing the first set 6-2 to Japan’s Taro Daniel and Kei Nishikori.
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They levelled the match by winning a second-set tie break – and the drama peaked in the decider when they scrapped from 8-3 down to win 11-9.
“I don’t think I’ve saved five match points in a row – in singles it’s almost impossible to do that,” Murray said after the win.
“It’s probably up there in terms of comebacks – probably the way we were playing to that stage would have not suggested we were able to come back.”
He added: “I certainly couldn’t have done that on my own today – as a team, Evo played his part in that. Evo has shown that before and helped me big time today.”
It looked at one point like the British pair were in line for a drubbing when they were broken early in the second set.
But a losing run of seven games ended when they broke back to make it 2-2.
The Japanese were in front again and closing in on the match when Murray lost his serve and 4-2 flashed up on the scoreboard.
Pic: Reuters
The topsy-turvy set continued with the Brits fighting back to 4-4 – and at six games apiece it took a tie break to settle things.
Murray and Evans won it 7-5 at the third time of asking to take the match to a deciding showdown.
The Olympics uses a doubles format that sees it go to a first to 10-point tie break to keep the matches short and maintain crowd interest.
It didn’t disappoint.
The efforts of Murray and Evans initially appeared to have been squandered when they slumped to 7-3 after a double fault from the Birmingham-born player.
When Evans netted a drop shot to make it 8-3, Murray must have thought the big comeback – and his career – was finally over.
But, almost unbelievably, they saved five match points.
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A Taro Daniel double fault helped, but there was also an ace from Murray and a fantastic drive volley from Evans, with the duo eventually winning the decider 11-9.
The pair hugged and Murray gave his trademark roar as they secured a second-round spot.
They will next play either Belgian pair Sander Gille and Joran Vilegen or French eighth seeds Arthur Fils and Ugo Humbert.
Elsewhere for Team GB on Sunday, there was a silver for Adam Peaty, the swimmer pipped by 0.02 seconds to gold as went for a third consecutive Olympic title.
Kimberley Woods also won bronze in the K1 kayak slalom, while Britain’s equestrian Eventing team retained their lead going into the final day.
