Andy Murray beats Jack Draper at Battle of the Brits to pull Scotland level with England after Dan Evans win
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Published 21/12/2022 at 22:23 GMT
Andy Murray looked in fine touch as he saw off Jack Draper at the Battle of the Brits in Aberdeen 6-2 1-6 12-10, pulling Scotland level with England at 1-1 after Dan Evans had beaten Aidan McHugh in the day's earlier rubber. Murray said post-match that during the recent off-season he has worked harder than he has "in a long time", and the efforts seemed to bear fruit against his young rival.
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Andy Murray beat Jack Draper 6-2 1-6 12-10 to pull Scotland level at 1-1 with England at the Battle of the Brits in Aberdeen.
The team event, which sees the two nations take each other on over two days of action, saw England go into the lead earlier in the day as Dan Evans beat Aidan McHugh 6-4 6-2.
And when Murray was 6-3 down in the deciding match tie-break, it looked like England - under the supervision of team captain and football coach Ian Holloway - would go into Thursday with a 2-0 lead.
But Murray can always be relied upon to fight for every point, and he dug out victory by hauling himself back into the lead, and then firing a stunning forehand winner on his third match point.
"Will to win, fighting for every point, chasing every ball down, came up with some part-luck, part-skill shots at the end, a few of them came off," Murray said when asked how he had managed to come out on the right side of the result.
"Unbelievable ending, I've not played many tie-breaks like that before.
"I wish [I could go on for ever in tennis], unfortunately that's not going to happen.
"I have put in a lot of hard work, it's the hardest I've worked in a long time these last couple of months.
"I need to keep going because it's not perfect yet, but the signs are good."
Murray waxed lyrical about opponent Draper afterwards too.
"I think he has the potential to be right up at the top of the game for a really, really long time," the three-time major winner said.
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Team Scotland's Andy Murray during the Schroders Battle of the Brits tournament at the P&J Live, on December 21, 2022, in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Image credit: Getty Images
"He loves his tennis, he works extremely hard and there are lots of positive things in his future.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what he does but it's very exciting for tennis in this country."
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