Andy Murray calls for Davis Cup change after Great Britain lose opening match | Tennis | Sport
Andy Murray has urged the Davis Cup organisers to alter their schedule after Great Britain lost their opening match of the event to the United States. Murray teamed up with fellow Brit Joe Salisbury on Wednesday to take on America’s Rajeev Ram and Jack Sock.
It was not to be for the British pair though, as they lost a thriller 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 in Glasgow. Following the loss, former world No. 1 Murray was less than impressed with both the late start and end to the match.
Competing on his home Scottish soil, the two-time Wimbledon winner, his teammate and rivals did not begin their clash until 10:00pm BST due to the two matches before them needing three sets. And with Murray’s match also going the distance, the clash did not end until just before 1:00am BST.
The remarkably late finish unsurprisingly led to many fans having to leave the arena early, with Murray alluding to the fact that the crowd had been ‘halved’ by the time the match eventually finished on Thursday morning. As a result, the Scottish star has called for a change to the schedule.
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Murray also raised questions around the fairness of the schedule, with his Wednesday opponents now set to return to action this afternoon despite only finishing in the early hours of this morning. He added: “They’re [Team USA] probably not going to be tucked up in their beds until, I don’t know what the time is, probably 3:30, 4:00 in the morning by the time they’ve done their recovery and managed to sort of calm down after a tie like that.
“It’s not just here. We’ve seen it obviously at the US Open even just last week. It’s something that tennis needs to sort of have a bit of a think about. I don’t think it looks that professional.”
