Murray puts Britain back on track in Davis Cup

World number four bounces back from Wimbledon defeat as match level 1-1.

GLASGOW:

Andy Murray bounced back from his Wimbledon disappointment to help Great Britain grab a share of the spoils in the opening singles of their Davis Cup clash with Luxembourg.

World number four Murray, beaten in the semi-finals at Wimbledon by Rafael Nadal a week ago, barely broke sweat as he crushed lowly-ranked Laurent Bram 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 to level the match at 1-1.

Murray showed no mercy to his hopelessly outclassed opponent, wrapping up the match in 52 minutes to square the tie after James Ward had lost to Gilles Muller in the opening rubber.

“You want to try and win as quickly as you can. [Bram] doesn’t play many tournaments any more so maybe it was tough for him,” said Murray.

Murray’s win gives Britain a good chance of scoring the victory they need this weekend to progress from their Europe/Africa Zone Group II encounter into a promotion play-off.

Sweden keep hopes alive

Sweden defied Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic to record a doubles victory against Davis Cup holders Serbia and keep their hopes alive of making the semi-finals.

Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt gave the home crowd at the Halmstad arena something to cheer about when they warded off elimination, at least until today, with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 win over Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic.

“I’m extremely happy. It’s really fun winning Davis Cup matches,” Aspelin told the TT news agency after the match which left Serbia 2-1 ahead with the reverse singles to play today.

After winning both singles rubbers on Friday, Serbia were boosted by the return of world number one Djokovic for the doubles encounter.

Djokovic pulled out of Friday’s action citing a knee injury, but was drafted back in to partner Zimonjic who ranks sixth in the world at doubles.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2011.