Andy Murray: Glasgow should host Davis Cup semi

GLASGOW deserves to host Britain’s Davis Cup semi-final in September, according to Andy Murray. The Scot had just pulled off an heroic and historic win over France, last year’s finalists, at Queen’s Club but now he just wanted to go home.

From left to right, Leon Smith, Jamie Murray, Andy Murray and James Ward celebrate the Davis Cup quarterfinal win. Picture: PA

His 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over Gilles Simon earned the winning point in Britain’s 3-1 victory and secured the team’s ticket to the last four. They will now play Australia in September, immediately after the US Open, and Murray wants that tie to be played in front of a full house and a passionate crowd.

The team’s route to the semi-finals began at the Emirates Arena back in March against the United States and the memory of the atmosphere generated in Glasgow that weekend will stay with Murray forever – he wants that again in two months’ time.

“When we played in Glasgow this year the atmosphere was incredible,” he said. “You could say they deserve it [the semi-final] because of how great a job they did there. I think they lifted everyone. I mean Wardy [James Ward] played a great match there against John Isner. Dom [Inglot] and Jamie were fantastic in the doubles against the Bryans and the crowd got right into it as well. It was a good venue. But the memories that you have from those matches, I’m sure the whole team would agree, the atmosphere was absolutely unbelievably there. You don’t get that in any other event, so you have a lot of memories from the Davis Cup and that’s one of the reasons you’re passionate to play.”

Coming just one week after Wimbledon, the week of preparation and the three days of back-to-back matches for Murray were exhausting both mentally and physically. As the world’s third best player, he will go to the US Open later this summer expecting to be in contention for the title which will mean another swift turnaround for the Australia tie. If Britain are to win, Murray will probably have to play on all three days just as he did against France.

“We’re in the semi-finals now and every match is going to be extremely important,” he said. “So I’ll try and find a way. I think I’ll find a way. But you make those sacrifices because I believe we can win. I’ve always enjoyed playing Davis Cup but, obviously, right now we’re in the World Group playing against great players, top teams, big matches in front of you, a fantastic atmosphere so it’s very hard not to get up for that.”