Murray produces astounding recovery to keep career alive

Andy Murray and Dan Evans pulled off an astounding recovery from five match points down in the first round of the Olympic men's doubles to keep Murray's career alive, eventually defeating Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel of Japan 2-6, 7-6(5), 11-9.

- Tumaini Carayol

Murray and Evans had initially trailed 2-6, 2-4 in a match that was on course to be decided in little over an hour, but the British pair fought back and narrowly edged out the second-set tie-break to force a 10-point match tie-break. From five match points down at 4-9, with Murray standing one point away the end of his career, they rolled through seven points in a row to pull out a victory from the jaws of defeat.

Murray described the win as one of the best recoveries of his career.

"It's probably up there," he said. "Probably the way that we were playing to that stage would have not suggested that we were likely to come back. I certainly didn't feel like I was playing well. Evo played well at times but for both of us we can play much better than that. And then it just all clicked at the end and we played some pretty, pretty good stuff."

Even before Murray's ailing physical condition meant he would not be able to compete in singles, he and Evans had decided playing in the doubles would be their priority in Paris, with high hopes of winning matches and building momentum in an Olympic draw filled with singles players and unfamiliar partnerships.

They have shown in their careers that they can play quality doubles, even if their prioritising of singles means they are more inconsistent in the discipline.