Tennis News: Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury were in the position to win the match for England in the first match of the ATP Cup group phase against Bulgaria, but they wasted two of their match point opportunities.
In the second match of the group phase, the English duo, Murray and Salisbury again lost the opportunity on their two match points. But this time, the opportunity for the third match point became their luck.
Murray and Salisbury defeated Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-3 7-6 in 1 hour 32 minutes and gave England a 2-1 lead over Belgium.
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Gille and Vliegen won three titles in the 2019 season, while Murray and Salisbury qualified in the ATP Finals with different pairs, but they showed their best level by not facing a single break point against the Belgian team.
“I don’t know how Joe feels, but I feel I can’t afford to waste this opportunity again. We get a chance to win the match and we can’t waste it anymore. “We have to win the game,” Murray said.
England again faced a problem when world number 157 as well as Belgian team captain Steve Darcis defeated British world number 53 Cameron Norrie 6-2 6-4 to give Belgium an advantage.
It took Darcis more than 3 hours to get through his first match in the ATP Cup on Friday (03/01) then, but he only needed 1 hour 12 minutes to defeat Norrie.
However, the hard work of Norrie’s compatriot Dan Evans provided an opportunity for England before Murray and Salisbury sealed England’s victory.
Evans looked convincing at the start of the match against former world number 3 Grigor Dimitrov in his first match against Bulgaria before Dimitrov turned things around and won. But this time, Evans did not let the same thing happen.
With his persistence, Evans successfully beat Belgian world number 11 from Belgium, David Goffin with 6-4, 6-4. The victory was Evans’s first victory over the top 20 since he beat world number 16 Nikolos Basilashvili at Wimbledon last season.
Previously, the Bulgarian Team, Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Lazarov struggled to overcome the game of qualified British duo specialist double number, Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury in the ATP Cup, Sydney.
Dimitrov and Lazarov secured two match points to claim victory with a tight 7-6, 6-7, 11-9 result over Murray and Salisbury in the final match at 2.46 am (04/01) local time, so that Bulgaria won 2-1 over England.
