Having observed one of Andy Murray’s most painful defeats this year from the courtside player box in Paris, Leon Smith is well aware of the task that he faces over the next three weeks. Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain must somehow try to lift Murray from the depths of despair as he tries to plot a way past Novak Djokovic’s Serbia in Málaga.
As a former childhood coach and long-time trusted confidant, Smith found it difficult watching Murray’s first-round capitulation from a 5-2 lead in the final set against Alex de Minaur, the world No 13 from Australia, at the Paris Masters on Monday. Moments after failing to convert a match point, Murray admitted that his recent struggles on the tour — five losses in his past six matches — had resulted in him losing his enjoyment of tennis.
One chink of light for Murray at this dark time is that he has a Davis Cup quarter-final to prepare for on November 23. Rather than sitting at home in a funk, the 36-year-old must soon get back on the horse and gear up for an attempt at winning tennis’s most prestigious team competition for a second time. Smith will do his best to remind him of that.
“End-of-season stuff is not easy,” Smith said. “Everyone’s been traipsing around and travelling. The Asia swing doesn’t make it easy as well. Everyone is tired after that and then you’ve got to keep pushing. And there’s a reason to keep pushing: the Davis Cup.
“It’s been important to us. We obviously had an amazing time in Manchester [where Britain progressed through the group stages in September]. Everyone was right into it, so we’ve got keep that momentum going and keep the motivation high.
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“The motivation won’t be a problem once you’re there. Once you get together as a team, everyone gets going. It’s just this period now, trying to combine a bit of rest, downtime, chilling out and getting [away] from tennis. But then you can’t stay too long away from it because you’ve got bloody tough matches coming up.”
⬤ Andy Murray vs Alex de Minaur: Scot smashes racket after defeat
Smith did not seem too concerned on Tuesday that Murray was particularly negative about his state of mind at present. He reasonably made the case that Murray had actually shown signs of improvements in his play to get to within one point of his best victory by ranking on the tour this year. The trouble, as has often been the case in recent months, is crossing the finish line.
“I think if you win a bit less, it’s normal [to be negative],” Smith said. “He’s a bloody good tennis player and he’s not been far away in some matches. Monday would have been a really good win and he’s so close to it. He is getting hacked off on the court because he knows he can do better still, and it must be difficult.
“With the stuff he has been working on in practice, I thought that was the best he’s hit the ball and what he was doing with it. He was dominating on his forehand from the centre of the court really well and played better when he came forward to the net. It’s a shame he didn’t win because then you feel those benefits more. When you lose it’s more difficult to reflect and say, ‘I’ve got a bit better again’, which I think he has.”
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Understandably, Smith gave little away about his preferred two singles picks from Murray, Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper. He did not attempt, however, to hide his disappointment that Dan Evans, a key player in both singles and doubles this year, will miss out because of the calf muscle tear he sustained in Vienna last week. It is likely that Joe Salisbury will be drafted in over the next 48 hours as a replacement doubles partner alongside Neal Skupski.
“I was absolutely gutted when I saw the footage of it,” Smith said. “He [Evans] was absolutely brilliant in Manchester. He loved it, he deeply cares about it and then importantly his quality was amazing. It’s a tough one for us and it’s definitely a shame for the team, but we’ve still got very good players. We have to keep believing that we’ve got a good chance, which we do.”
Soon afterwards, Smith headed to Court No 2 to watch Djokovic play his first match for six weeks. The 24-times grand-slam champion from Serbia signed up for the doubles to finesse his net game for a potentially decisive match against Britain and he looked in good shape alongside compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic in a 6-4, 6-2 win over Gonzalo Escobar and Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
“We play Great Britain, who have had for decades the best doubles players in the world,” Djokovic said. “I think every match is pretty open, even without Evans. Andy, Draper and Norrie are three very good singles players. I would say it’s maybe 50-50 for both teams in singles and probably they are the strong favourites in doubles. For us we are hoping to win the tie after the singles matches, but let’s see.”
Meanwhile, Carlos Alcaraz suffered a tame defeat in his opening match in Paris last night. The Wimbledon champion, 20, has been struggling recently with a left foot injury and he looked short of full fitness in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat by the world No 45, Roman Safiullin.
