Murray and Evans secure.thrilling tie-break victory

After the yelling and the leaping, the hugging and the sheer disbelief, Andy Murray returned to his seat and acted as if he had found a moment of silence amid the bedlam.

- JAMIE BRAIDWOOD

Head in his hands, he tried to process the previous minute where his career teetered on the brink and then came roaring back once more, before the tears began. He can’t believe this. Can we? Not a chance. His Olympics show with Dan Evans goes on and the last dance gets another turn. As thrilling as the last time, as fraught with tension, two more match points saved to extend a career by at least two more days.

Because why not? Murray is making up the rules now. When you’ve already saved five match points and seen the end once, you are playing with house money, even if it is potentially the final match of your career.

Murray and Evans summoned the spirit of what they found in that memorable escape in the opening round, first playing as if they had nothing to lose and everything to win, then digging themselves out of trouble again.

Two more match points saved, they won another final tiebreak to beat Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen to reach the Olympic quarter-finals with another wild scoreline, 6-3 6-7 (8) (11/9). A shot at a medal is now just one more win away.

The match tiebreak had the same scoreline as their miraculous first-round escape against Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel, 11-9, but the previous two hours on a sticky, frenzied night on Court Suzanne-Lenglen couldn’t have been more different – until it suddenly was, and the end was there again.