Andy Murray’s miracle double comeback at Paris Olympics puts retirement on hold

Sir Andy Murray’s career was saved from ruin when he and Dan Evans saved five match points to win their opening doubles match at the Olympic Games.

The British tennis star said before the tournament that it would be his last ever match.

In one of his best comebacks, Murray and Evans recovered from a 6-2 first set defeat to Japan’s Taro Daniel and Kei Nishikori.

Latest news 2024 Olympics: Peaty sheds ‘tears of joy’ after narrowly missing out on gold

They evened the match by winning a tiebreak in the second set, but the highlight came in the deciding set, when they went from 8-3 down to an 11-9 victory.

“I don’t think I’ve saved five match points in a row. In singles that’s almost impossible,” Murray said after the win.

“It’s probably one of the best comebacks. The way we were playing up until that point wouldn’t suggest we could come back.”

He added: “I certainly couldn’t have done it alone today – as a team, Evo played his part in that. Evo has shown that before and helped me a lot today.”

At one point it looked like the British duo were going to take a beating when they were broken early in the second set.

But a seven-game losing streak ended when they came back to level the score at 2-2.

The Japanese were back ahead and were closing in when Murray lost his serve and the score was 4-2.

The series continued to be chaotic, with the British fighting back to 4-4, with six games per team requiring a tiebreak to settle the matter.

Murray and Evans won 7-5 when they asked for a win for the third time, setting up a deciding showdown.

The Olympics uses a doubles format where the first match is decided to 10 points, to keep matches short and maintain the audience’s attention.

It did not disappoint.

Murray and Evans’ efforts initially appeared to have been in vain as they fell back to 7-3 after a double fault from the Birmingham-born player.

When Evans hit a drop shot to make it 8-3, Murray must have thought the great comeback – and his career – was finally over.

But it’s almost unbelievable, they saved five match points.

A double fault from Taro Daniel helped, but there was also an ace from Murray and a fantastic drive volley from Evans, which eventually saw the duo win the deciding match 11-9.

The two embraced and Murray roared as always as they secured a spot in the second round.

They will then play against the Belgian duo Sander Gille and Joran Vilegen or against the eighth-seeded Frenchmen Arthur Fils and Ugo Humbert.

Elsewhere for Team GB on Sunday there was a silver for Adam PeatyThe swimmer won by 0.02 seconds for gold and went for a third consecutive Olympic title.

Kimberley Woods also won bronze in the K1 kayak slalom as the British eventing team maintained their lead going into the final day.

Sky News