Extreme emotions on show as Murrays put Britain on brink of title

Andy let slip a full-face grin – a rare sight for this most ferocious of competitors – and then hugged Leon Smith, the team captain, and his sibling once more.

Just yards away, on the other side of the net, sat double despair in the form of the beaten Belgians – David Goffin and Steve Darcis.

But it was not just these extreme emotions that had been shoehorned into just under three hours – in fact it’s hard to imagine a match that shows more fully the spectrum of feeling.

First up, the fear. There was bound to be at least a slight undercurrent of this for the fans travelling into the Flanders Expo in Ghent and negotiating the strict security that guards the building. But two weeks after the terrible Paris attacks, with the terrorist threat level still raised, that is natural.

And then, as the match began, came the nerves. Jamie Murray seemed full of them, unsurprisingly. He struggled to see out his service games which were littered with deuces early on, compared with Andy who ripped through the first points of his delivery. Yet it must be an interminably intense form of pressure, not wanting to let down your brother, your team, or your nation. No wonder his legs seemed heavy.

"Maybe that was the whole situation of the tie,” he admitted afterwards.

Despite being well below the top form he has displayed this year, and winning the first set 6-4, there were also troubles for him in the second. On one occasion the British pair were lobbed and Jamie called out in his thick Scottish brogue “got it, got it,” only to fail in tracking the ball before its second bounce. The errors added up and the Belgians levelled the match.

So it was hope that the home side began to brim with after playing some superb tennis close to the net and mixing up their tactics beautifully to confuse their opponents. Their fans, many fuelled by Belgian beer no doubt, reached their boisterous best. There were 13,000 in the arena, but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was closer to 30,000.

The Murrays, of course, love a scrap, and so they composed themselves and changed tactics – Andy dropping back to the baseline when Jamie returned serve to cut off the angles at the net. Slowly, but surely, they began to pull away.

Not before a quick flash of irritation, though. While serving midway through the third set, a fan let off a hooter as Andy threw the ball up to serve. Who knows what he would have felt if he had he not defused the situation with an ace. It would not have been the relief that surely flooded him as the ball landed on the line.

Before it got too comfortable for them, however, the umpire also decided to stoke the fire. Calling a ball out at 3-2, 30-30 in the third – a critical juncture to say the least – when in fact it was in, is not a good option when faced with an excited crowd and an adrenaline-filled Murray twosome. Smith, who had his say in the fallout, probably felt like rubbing Carlos Ramos’ face in the specially laid dirt court designed hold up his team.

Yet again, it did not disrupt the Britons' rhythm, however. So imagine the pride of mother Judy, when watching her two sons put Britain on the brink of a famous victory. Or the delirious delight of their fans who expect a first Davis Cup title for 79 years on Sunday.

Perhaps it is the team nature of this tennis event that makes it so special, like the Ryder Cup in golf. Whatever it is, the passion on display, from both sides, and the crowd, made this match remarkable. And that is not the “passion” that is often dredged up to liven up a response in a job interview, or to suck people into marketing material. Because in sport at its best it is there, because people truly care.