With the first day of Britain’s Davis Cup defence over, the plot is familiar. Japan, just like Belgium, Australia and France in last year’s historic run to the title, remain an indisputable threat with the score tied at 1-1. But the British team have Andy Murray and therefore a strong reason for optimism.
However, things are considerably different at Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena than they were in Ghent, Glasgow or London’s Queen’s Club last year when Murray was perfectly primed for three days of consecutive action in the British front line.
After not hitting a competitive ball for 33 days, to properly fulfil the duties of a new father, he duly went back to work and decisively returned to action with an emphatic 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Taro Daniel, the Japanese second- string prospect.
Leon Smith, the British Davis Cup captain, who has known both Murray brothers since childhood, must decide whether it is wise to risk reuniting Andy and Jamie in today’s doubles, or hold back his prize asset to face Kei Nishikori tomorrow in the clash of the nations’ No 1s.
Nishikori, the world No 6, is the highest-ranked singles player that any British Davis Cup competitor has had to face since Roger Federer allowed Alan Mackin only two games in Geneva over ten years ago. And the threat of the Japanese suggests a possible difference of opinion between Britain’s captain and key player before today’s doubles.
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Smith clearly wants the Murray brothers to team up again today, saying: “Andy and Jamie is our strongest team so it is great if they can play. It all depends how Andy feels. But if he does think he doesn’t want to play, we have got a very good guy in Dominic Inglot ready to go as well. So I am quite relaxed about the situation.”
But Andy Murray appears to be erring on the side caution, having spent so long away from the competitive arena. “Obviously Jamie and Dom have been practising the whole week,” he said. “I did one doubles session in preparation.
“We will obviously chat about it. Whichever team plays is a strong one and of course has the ability to win the match.”
However, viewing the physical toll of a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 win over the world No 87 that lasted only an hour and a half, he added: “It was fairly quick, so I definitely will have saved up enough energy for the weekend.”
Murray never looked likely to fail in defending his unbeaten run in singles on home territory in Davis Cup — lasting for 19 rubbers and all the way back to his first solo outing against Israel’s Andy Ram at Eastbourne nearly ten years ago. After winning the first 11 points against Daniel, he rarely looked even remotely uncomfortable and it seemed clear that his reputation alone, and the adulation of the 9,000-strong Birmingham crowd, were significant intimidatory factors over the 23 year-old Japanese, who admitted: “My lack of experience was obvious.”
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Murray surprisingly confessed that the playing surface was not completely to his liking, branding it slightly quicker than the court laid in Glasgow twice last year and saying it was sticky, making movement more difficult.
Daniel, who is based in Valencia and therefore obviously prefers to play on a clay court found it more difficult than Murray and added: “He’s the second best player in the world and if you don’t do your best against him, then it’s going to slip away pretty quickly. When you feel nervous then it’s hard to get your level up positively. Even when I felt like I was getting into it in the second set, he was always hitting aces and never really let me in.”
Murray, last seen playing when losing the Australian Open final to Novak Djokovic, most certainly looked like a man on a mission. He served superbly, unleashing 15 aces and winning 43 of the 54 first deliveries that he got into play.
By his own admission, he was left rather short of breath in some extended rallies later in the match but after allowing Daniel to recover a modicum of self-respect in the second set, again upped the pressure in the third to end affairs on his first match point with a perfect ace down the middle of the court.
“I thought I did a lot of things well,” said a distinctly self-congratulatory Murray, who admitted to a few nerves having said that he did not even touch a racket for two weeks as fatherhood took priority in his life.
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“Maybe I made a few bad decisions out there and my concentration could have been a little bit better at times. I felt like I moved pretty good. Maybe it wasn’t a perfect performance but it was good for a first match back in almost five weeks. In that sort of atmosphere against a guy who obviously makes a lot of balls, it was OK.”
How they stand
at Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham
Great Britain level with Japan 1-1
Great Britain names first
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Singles
A Murray bt T Daniel 6-1, 6-3, 6-1
D Evans lost to K Nishikori 6-3, 7-5, 7-6
Doubles: Today
D Inglot and A Murray/J Murray v
Y Nishioka/Y Uchiyama/Nishikori
TV: live on BBC One, 2pm-4.30; BBC Two, 4.30pm-5.30pm.
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Reverse singles: Tomorrow
A Murray v K Nishikori
D Evans v T Daniel
TV: live on BBC One, 1pm-4.30.