The question that leading tennis players often ask themselves when the Davis Cup comes around is, “Why bother?” especially if they have already claimed a winner’s medal. As Andy Murray walked in to a rapturous reception in Birmingham yesterday, you could understand why he still leans to, “Why not?”
What other crowd is going to give him an ovation for steamrolling Taro Daniel, of Japan, in three quick sets? Where else can he feel part of something bigger than his own ambitions; a team who extend from his brother, his accomplices, through 9,000 screaming fans and beyond?
True, the money is negligible and, in an Olympic year, the challenge of fitting the Davis Cup into his schedule — to which was recently added the joys and strains of fatherhood — may yet take their toll. The calendar really does not favour this competition.
Adding to his two grand-slam victories and his Olympic gold must be Murray’s main target but we saw last year just how much winning the Davis Cup meant to him and, for now, he seems intent on trying to defend it.
As we were reminded yesterday simply by the noise inside Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena, this competition offers something unique. Perhaps the roars, the tribalism, the camaraderie, the teamship connects with Murray’s inner, frustrated footballer, like Ian Poulter in the Ryder Cup.
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Murray has untapped the joys of the Davis Cup for himself, and for so many of us. A full house revelled in the emotion, the partisanship, from the moment they heard, “Please welcome your defending champions . . .”
It has been a while — 79 years — since a British tennis announcer has been able to shout that and it is doubtful that Bunny Austin walked out to pumping techno music, horns and shooting blasts of flame. There may have been pyrotechnics back in 1937 but only if the crowd were smoking pipes.
Like a boxer, Murray entered the gladiatorial arena through a dimly lit tunnel and was walking back through it exactly 90 minutes later after trouncing Daniel. The Scot won the first 11 points against his skinny opponent, who, with his downbeat demeanour and baseball cap turned back to front, resembled a skateboarder who had walked into the wrong hall and played like it in a nervous opening set.
Murray was quickly 5-0 up against the world No 87 and won the first set in 28 minutes. It was the softest return imaginable five weeks after he last walked off a competitive court, beaten and bruised by Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open.
Djokovic is another reason why Murray may find it tricky to walk away from this competition. The Scot had intimated last year that he would play this opening defence against Japan and then step away, politely, his work done. The country could not complain, only say thank him.
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But could he really resist an encounter with Serbia and Djokovic in a quarter- final, assuming that Britain can knock over Japan this weekend? He would also have to assume that Djokovic would play, too, which is open to question.
The timing would be terrible for both players, coming in July and squeezed between Wimbledon and the Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, but it would be some occasion if the world’s best-ranked pair went head to head in front of a fiercely partisan crowd in Belgrade.
As Murray was trampling over Daniel, Djokovic was even quicker off the mark over in Serbia, wrapping up the opening set against Aleksandr Nedovyesov, his Kazakh opponent, inside 23 minutes to keep the world’s top two on collision course.
Murray breezed to a 6-1 6-3 6-1 win, though typically he managed to make even this stroll seem like the most important match of his life. He turned his ankle trying to salvage a hopeless cause in a final set.
He finished with an ace, his 15th, and Daniel looked as if he had done 12 rounds, rather than three sets.
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In the other singles match, it was far harder for Dan Evans, who had the same raucous crowd backing, especially as a local Solihull lad, but was always likely to struggle against Kei Nishikori, the world No 6. He lost in straight sets and, once again, Britain look to Murray to shoulder the burden.
The format is wrong if one player can be so influential but as long as there is a fit and willing Murray, there is hope for Britain that they can stay in the World Group and, perhaps, even win this trophy again.
“While we are playing against teams with players like Kei and last year against France, who were extremely strong, the United States, a big tennis nation, and Australia with [Lleyton] Hewitt in the semi-finals, so long as we are in the World Group, you’ve got the chance to play in front of big crowds,” Murray said.
It was an audience so adoring of the Scot yesterday that when he was interviewed on court and mentioned that this was his first time away from Sophia, his first child who was born last month, thousands of spectators gave a soppy “aaaah”.
They applauded his drop shots, roared his smashes and gushed over his status as a father. They know how vital it is to keep luring Murray back.