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Andy Murray Dedicates Davis Cup Win To Late Grandmother, Tears Flow As Funeral Missed

Murray returned to his bench and sobbed under his towel as the Manchester crowd applauded.

Andy Murray
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Three-time Grand Slam winner Andy Murray sobbed after admitting he missed his grandmother's funeral to compete in the Davis Cup Finals.

Murray came from behind to defeat Leandro Riedi 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-4 and give Britain a 2-1 lead over Switzerland in the finals group stage on Friday.

The Scottish player required more than 3 hours to defeat Riedi and was overtaken with emotion near the end of his on-court interview.

“Today is a tough day for me. It's my gran's funeral today,” Murray said. “I'm sorry to my family that I'm not able to be there but, gran, this one's for you.”

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 15, 2023

Murray then returned to his bench and sobbed under his towel as the Manchester crowd applauded.

The 36-year-old Murray later said he spoke to his father about whether he should play or not, “and he said that she'd want you to play. He just said Make sure you win,' so I did.”

Stan Wawrinka defeated Cameron Norrie 7-5, 6-4 to equalise the tie, but Dan Evans and Neal Skupski defeated Wawrinka and Dominic Stricker 6-3, 6-3 in doubles to secure Britain's Group B victory.

Britain opened with a 2-1 win over Australia and is expected to go to the Final 8 in Malaga, southern Spain, in November.

Australia and France each have one win and one loss, while Switzerland is winless. Each of the four groups' top two players advances.

Novak Djokovic advanced Serbia to the Final 8 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Group C.

Laslo Djere had won his match earlier in Valencia, and Nikola Cacic and Miomir Kecmanovic won the doubles to give Serbia a 3-0 triumph and set up a confrontation with the Czech Republic to discover who would finish first in the group. Both countries have two victories each.

Defending champion Canada has won its first two matches in Group A in Bologna, and the Netherlands has won its first two matches in Group D in Split, Croatia.

On Friday, Italy defeated Chile 3-0 in Group A, while Finland defeated Croatia 2-1 in Group D.

(With AP inputs)