Andy Murray delays retirement with epic win

PARIS — Andy Murray’s retirement has been delayed as he and his playing partner, Dan Evans, rescued a remarkable five match points in a third-set tiebreak to win their first round doubles match at the Paris Olympics on Sunday.

Murray will retire after these Games, and he was set to end his career on Sunday night against Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel after losing four straight games in a sluggish first set at Roland Garros.

The Brits fought back to win the second set via a tie break before their astonishing comeback that even surprised the players themselves.

“Never done it before, and I’ll never do that again,” Evans said.

Murray was similarly surprised. When asked where it ranked among the comebacks in his career, he said it would go “right up there.”

The British pair entered this match undercooked and with slight injuries — Murray has not fully recovered from a spinal cyst procedure earlier this month, while Evans slipped in his first-round match earlier on Sunday.

It helps explain why the pair struggled so badly in the first set. By their own admission, it was well below their usual standards. Murray was asked if he was nervous during the match that his career was coming to an end.

“When the match started and was not playing well, not feeling great and didn’t serve well and was just struggling a bit on the court. I was feeling like that,” Murray said.

“I was disappointed with the way that was playing and hoping that the level was going to pick up because in training in the last week, 10 days, we’ve been playing pretty well and that wasn’t what happened today.”

Then came the first half of a stirring comeback. Murray and Evans were two games down in the second set before clawing their way back and winning the tie break 7-5. It sent the game to a match tie break, however, with their backs against the wall after going 9-5 down, Murray said any thoughts of his career ending slipped away.

“I was feeling it a bit during the match, but at the end I wasn’t standing to serve thinking, ‘oh my God, this is about to be over and what am I going to do?’ I was really clear about where I wanted to return and where I wanted to serve. I don’t know what he [Evans] was feeling in that moment, but he certainly played like that as well. He served to the right spots and had some great shots.”

The result means Murray’s career will continue for at least one more match, which will come against either France’s Arthur Fils and Ugo Humbert or Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.