ANDY MURRAY gave everything, but for once it was not enough.
The British No 1 missed his grandfather’s funeral to prepare for a rematch of his Olympic final against Juan Martin Del Potro.
And after he lost 6-4 5-7 6-7 6-3 6-4 in five hours and seven minutes, you would hesitate to call any other defeat suffered by him or anyone else “heartbreaking” ever again.
There is still plenty of tennis to be played in this Davis Cup semi final, but nothing will be as dramatic as this match, the longest of Murray’s career.
Just as they had done in Rio, he and Del Potro slugged it out like gladiators. Only this time, the battle stretched into a fifth set and a sixth hour, and the Argentinian was the victor.
A deserved one, too. But it’s hard to see how Murray will be in any state, physically or mentally, to play doubles tomorrow with brother Jamie.
Murray put too few first serves in court, claimed not enough points on second serve and made too many unforced errors to win the first set, in which Del Potro served brilliantly and generally played that way, too.
But what was more worrying was Murray’s apparent lack of mental and physical energy – understandable in the circumstances, of course – to change the momentum.
He kept hanging in there, though, gradually increasing his level of performance in a tight second set which he won in controversial circumstances.
Overexcited British fans cheered when they thought a Del Potro shot had gone long on set point but the rally continued until he hit wide.
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The Argentinian and his captain, Daniel Orsanic, protested to match referee Stefan Fransson but the only result was a request to the crowd to keep it zipped during points.
Murray somehow emerged on top from a marathon, 85-minute third set which had extra talking points in the shape of a terrible line call which derailed the Scot and a shout from an Argentinian fan which distracted him at another crucial moment.
But he broke Del Potro when he was serving for the set at 5-4, prompting an Eric Cantona-style celebration, and took the later tiebreak 7-5.
It was far from over, however. Murray’s slack service game at 1-2 in the fourth gifted Del Potro a break (with the help of a Tweener lob) and the Argentinian made sure the match went into a decider.
Just as in the Olympic final, the effort of chasing down Del Potro’s clubbing forehands was taking its toll on Murray.
The striking Rio image of him leaning on his racket in sheer fatigue was there again and no amount of massage in his legs was going to stop the pain.
Murray needed help, and appealed for even more noise from the home crowd after saving a break point in the fifth game.
But with the Argentinian fans still distracting him, he was broken in the seventh game thanks to a jaw-dropping forehand pass by Del Potro.
Murray saved one match point with an ace and ran his heart out to try to break the Argentinian. But Del Potro ended an incredible match with an ace.
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