Dan Evans shed light on his pre-match chat with Andy Murray (Image: Getty)
Andy Murray is playing doubles with Dan Evans at the Olympics, where he will retire.
Dan Evans has shed light on the private chat he had with Andy Murray ahead of their heroics first-round doubles match at the Olympics.
Murray will retire at the Paris 2024 Games but he kept his career alive on Sunday night after he and Evans saved five consecutive match points to beat Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel 2-6 7-6(5) [11-9].
After the match, Evans touched on their hopes of doing “something special” for Murray’s farewell after they pulled off an epic escape act.
“We were saying on the buggy up, if we’d lost we’d have no chance of something special,” the 32-year-old said of their pre-match discussion. “We’ve still got a chance. We’ll get better from that match, we’ll learn from it and it’s pretty cool that we’ve got another shot.”
But Evans is trying not to think too far ahead when it comes to getting their hands on a medal. He continued: “I don’t really think about the medal. know, I think the medal is the right at the end of what we’d have to do, something really good together and we’ve worked super hard.
“And it would just be the cherry on top to get to get something out of playing this week and putting in the hard work last week in doubles in [National Tennis Centre] and to do it with him, you know would be sort of an amazing thing for how I’m sure he wants to finish his that way. And he definitely believes we can do that.”
Even if Murray doesn’t get his hands on one more Olympic gold medal during his last dance, he has already enjoyed something special. The former world No. 1 and Evans trailed their Japanese opponents 2-6 0-2 in Sunday’s first-round match and lost seven games in a row.
But they dug deep and stormed back to force a decisive match tiebreak. The Brits quickly went 4-9 down but won the last seven points in a row, saving five match points in the process.
Asked whether Murray would be relieved to have at least one notable moment in his farewell event, Evans said: “You ask him. I would say yeah. He might not say it. I think it is, it’s pretty special.”
The world No. 58 chose to prioritise doubles over singles at the Olympics and is keen to give Murray the send-off he deserves. “It’s always hard playing with Andy. I’ve never been in his situation and neither has he, where he knows it’s his last tournament,” Evans said of the unique situation.
“I’m sure sometimes he thinks about that or is a bit flat and there are a lot of emotions on top this week, I imagine. He did a great job getting the team up in the end, getting the crowd involved. When he asks for something off the crowd they really do give him it.”
