Andy Murray fights back tears after missing gran's funeral for Davis Cup victory

15 September 2023 , 15:58

656     0

Andy Murray

Andy Murray dedicated his win over Leandro Riedi at the Davis Cup Finals to his grandmother, with the 36-year-old fighting back tears as he revealed he had missed her funeral to play the match.

"Today is a tough day for me," Murray said in his on-court interview. "It's actually my gran's funeral. I'm sorry to my family that I'm not able to be there. Gran that one is for you."

Murray was visibly emotional as he spoke, pausing several times to compose himself as the crowd showed their support for the Brit who had come through a tough three-hour contest against Davis Cup debutant Leandro Riedi.

Murray's victory gave Great Britain a 1-0 lead over Switzerland and he needed all his experience to beat the 21-year-old Riedi. "It's obviously incredible to get through that one, it easily could have gone the other way," Murray said of the win.

"It was ridiculous the shots he was pulling off, amazing, amazing returning. I kept fighting and tried to stay focused and managed to turn it round.

Andy Murray in dig at Potter as Chelsea's wretched Premier League run continues

"It's difficult because we were expecting [Dominic] Stricker to play, the left-hander and I've been preparing for that and practicing and then you find out an hour before it was him and I'd never played him before or practiced with him.

"I knew he was a shot maker but he sustained it for a really long time today and I had to make some adjustments during the match. The team help with that as well so thanks to them for that."

Great Britain beat Australia 2-1 on Wednesday after Jack Draper and Dan Evans won their respective singles matches against Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur. Captain Leon Smith then decided to switch things up by picking Murray and Cameron Norrie for singles matches against Switzerland.

And Murray got Great Britain off to a winning start ahead of Norrie's singles match against three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka. Speaking ahead of the match, Murray revealed he had actually offered to withdraw from the team after crashing out of the US Open in the second round with a straight sets loss to Grigor Dimitrov.

"At that moment, straight as I came off the court, I wasn’t in a great place after losing in a Slam," Murray said. "I said [to captain Leon Smith], if I'm not needed, I completely get that. But, for whatever reason, he asked me to come and I said I would come.

"I've always loved playing Davis Cup and any event where you're competing for your country. We have a great group of guys, I love being part of this team, we've got great staff as well. Everyone gets on extremely well.

"I do genuinely believe the team can win the event. That's a huge motivation to be a part of it. I want to help the team in any way I can, whether that's on the court or off. We'll see what happens."

Matthew Cooper