Can Andy Murray Lead Britain to Their First Davis Cup Title in 79 Years?

Former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray took Britain into its first Davis Cup final in 37 years on Sunday, winning both singles and doubles for his team in the tie against Australia.

Long before his victory at the US Open in 2012 and at the All-England Club in 2013, Murray had always maintained that he was a proud Scottish national first, British second. He hated people calling him ‘English’ because he thought it was like calling a French person German.

Following the 2012 Wimbledon final that Murray lost against Federer, the Brit cried in front of a sold out  Centre Court crowd that had gathered there to support him. Before this incident, everybody thought Murray was an arrogant player always full of himself, yet it was that incident that showed people his human side, especially his own people in Britain.

Moreover, while millions in 2013 were hoping that he could be the first Brit to win a Wimbledon men’s singles title in more than 77 years, Murray himself had always been clear that tennis was an individual sport.

“I want to win for the people I work with and for my parents, who helped me when I was growing up,” Murray was quoted as saying in his 2013 biography by Mark Hodgkinson. “Then, doing it for British tennis and British sport would be excellent as well.”

Fast forward to 2015 and Murray has not only carried Great Britain to a historic final in the Davis Cup,  but he is also willing to skip the ATP finals in late November so he can be ready physically for the ultimate contest against Belgium. Men’s governing tennis body has since clarified that all players who have qualified are required to play in the ATP finals unless they are injured.

Since the final is scheduled to be played in Belgium itself, the host country would have the power to choose a surface of their liking, which is most likely to be an indoor clay surface. This means Murray, who likes hard courts, would have to tune his body in order to be ready for the finals.

If Murray plays in the ATP finals, he would have a chance to compete in five matches to take home a cheque of $1.3 million. But he would also have just 3 days after the finals in London to prepare for Davis Cup and that would mean unneccessary exhaustion. It could have a massive say in his game from Friday the week after.

For Murray, the singles matches against the likes of lower-ranked David Goffin and Steve Darcis shouldn’t be the most difficult, but the fact that he had back problems in the semifinal against Australia would play on his mind. The transition from hard courts to clay has also always been a difficult one for the Brit.

Roger Federer faced the same problem last year before he took Switzerland to a historic Davis Cup victory against France. Federer withdrew from the title clash against Novak Djokovic at the ATP finals because of a back problem and then lost a crucial match to Gael Monfils in singles at the Davis Cup. Although it all ended in success for Switzerland, Federer had to endure a lot of pain.

Britain waited 77 years for one of its own to win the Wimbledon men’s singles championship, a streak that finally ended in 2013 thanks to Murray. Davis Cup was last won in 1936 by Great Britain and with the matchup against Belgium looming, all the pressure is on Murray to deliver this title as well.

Can Murray end another drought, this one that’s lasted 79 years? Anything other than the title would be seen as a major disappointment, and it’s up to Britain’s best-ever to deliver once again.