So, Sunday morning arrived and we had the deciding matches of the tie to look forward to.
As we were driving home after the match we decided to have a lie in before heading to the arena.
We packed up all our things and loaded them into the car and got ready to walk across. The weather put an end to that plan as it started raining heavily, so instead we drove the car across and parked in the arena parking!
We had another look around the shops and grabbed some lunch and then headed into the arena.
We arrived to find James Ward practicing on the court with Dan Evans.
Unfortunately we still had to endure the dreadful violins....why oh why the organisers thought we would want to see the exact same act three days in a row is beyond me!
Finally though the players were introduced....Andy Murray vs Gilles Muller.
This match was expected to be quite tough, Muller had pushed Nadal at Wimbledon a couple of weeks earlier so was to be no pushover.
Andy was really trying hard and missed a couple of opportunities to break which he was visibly annoyed at. He got the break though and wrapped up the first set.
Andy was really piling on the pressure, he was barely sitting down at changeovers and taking little time in between serves.
The am.commers today finally used their letters to spell out some inspiring messages - not sure what they said as we were over to the side of the group but we got a picture of them in the process!
I noticed during this match that Ross Hutchins seems to be the troublemaker of the GB team - he was seemingly constantly teasing the other players and generally being mischevious.
After winning the first set Andy took control of the match and won the second 6-3, he then powered through the third racing to a 5-0 lead. Muller managed to hold his last service game though and Andy came through 6-1 in the third!
He was clearly thrilled to get the win and leapt into the air with joy.
If anyone had ever doubted what it means to Andy to play for his country they were proved wrong after this match. He was extremely emotional in the on-court interview and broke down whilst trying to explain what it meant to him to play the tie so close to home!
So, the tie was now won and GB would get to play a promotion tie in September against Hungary (location tbd). As Andy had won quite quickly we stayed to see how James Ward would do in the dead rubber.
He was playing Mike Vermeer who had been nicknamed the Milky Bar kid by the students from Stirling Uni.
James was broken in his first service game, but managed to break straight back and promptly won the first set 6-1. Jamie Murray had deputised for Leon as captain for the first half of the set and must have been impressed by his promising start as captain!
The second set was more competitive but James took it 6-3 to give GB a 4-1 win in the tie!
Rob and I then left quickly (and didn't get the chance to say goodbye) as we had a long drive back home and wanted to get going.
Several hours later and we walked in the door at about 11.30pm.
All in all we had a really fun weekend, it was great to meet up with the am.commers again. We probably won't make the tie in September as we are going on holiday the week after, but when the venue is announced we will see what we can do!
I have only included a selection of my photos - the rest are on photobucket and can be viewed here:
Davis Cup Photos
Following my success in meeting the players yesterday we decided to head back out to the portacabin after the match.
On our arrival we found some of the am.commers already there - my directions had clearly been sufficient!
We waited around for a while chatting, the wine man was in the portacabin again but no wine so far!
The announcer from the arena arrived and he told us that the guys had all gone to some cocktail party and so probably would not be out for at least another hour.
We continued to wait and then we saw Rob Curling (from Eurosport). Maureen introduced herself and informed him that we were all 'Murray Maniacs'.
We had a nice chat and he asked us where we were from - we told him all over the UK. Maureen then proceeded to tell him how rubbish Andrew Castle is and that he should stop being horrible about Andy.
Rob tried to defend Bouncy saying that he has a wonderful sense of humour but can easily be misunderstood.
Well, Maureen vigourously disagreed - and my Rob got some brilliant photos of the discussion.
We eventually said goodbye to Rob and he went to get the bus to the hotel.
By now we had been waiting for quite some time and the man from inside the portacabin brought out some cake for us to eat! It was really nice but unfortunately the rasberries fell off making quite a mess on the floor!
A little while after the Luxembourg team left the arena.
After a while longer the man from the portacabin told us that the team were now going to practice on the court for a while to give Dan and James some experience of the conditions.
At this point some of us decided that it was a bit cold and windy to stay any longer (and we had been stood there for about 2 hours) so we headed off.
Some of the am.commers stopped off in Wetherspoons for a drink. We went back to our room before going out to get some food.
When we left our room to head off to find food, we bumped into some disappointed am.commers, they had waited around and eventually seen Colin Fleming.
Unfortunately though Andy and Jamie had also left while they were waiting....without signing any autographs. Obviously they didn't have to sign anything but it was a bit disappointing for those guys that had waited for such a long time :(
Rob and I had dinner in Tony Romas, which was quite nice. We had planned to watch a movie afterwards but had too much to eat and so went back to the room to sleep it off!
We decided to do a bit of shopping this morning before the tennis as it didn't start until 2pm and I needed to get a new compact flash card for the camera!
So, we had a look around the shopping centre and bought a cf card in currys. Whilst we were there we went to pick up a birthday card for Rob's brother. We also found some pressies for our niece and nephew - giant piggy banks! They were on sale and a real bargain.
Rob picked up a pair of trainers which were also in the sale so we had quite a successful shopping trip. We grabbed a bite to eat in Subway and then took our shopping back to the room before heading to the arena.
The dreadful violin duo were performing again, we had tried to time our arrival to miss them but didn't quite manage it!
We were in different seats today, quite central and a good position.
I was quite excited to be watching Andy and Jamie play doubles together - although they play some tournaments together they are rarely televised and so it was a rare tennis treat!
The first set was a tight affair but the Murrays eventually got the break.
After that the guys seemed to loosen up and they took the second and third sets quite easily.
It was brilliant to be able to see them win their first DC doubles match together - they really seemed to enjoy the match and playing together!
The tennis hadn't started until 4 but thanks to Andy winning his match so quickly we were out of the arena at about 8pm.
We were going to head off to grab a bite to eat but thought we would see if there were any players leaving the arena first....
While we had been wandering around earlier we had spotted a portacabin with a Davis Cup sign on it so we thought we would head there and see what happened.
There were a few people waiting so we waited for a little while and chatted to a few people.
After a short wait a few of the GB team appeared at the door, so I got some autographs from James, Ross and Jamie. Somehow I missed Dan and Colin...not sure how!
Got a few piccys including a terrible one of me with Jamie....
Jamie told us that Andy would be a little while as he had to do press etc. We decided to wait and soon after the Luxembourg team came out as well.
There had been some mix up and so they had to wait a few minutes for their bus. They were chatting and signed some autographs.
The coach was really amusing - he announced that he was much better looking than Leon! Apparently though as Leon is younger that balanced things out!
Surprisingly we had quite a fun time while waiting, there were a couple of girls waiting for Andy and one of them complained that she could have been at home with a drink by now.
A man from inside the portacabin then offered her and the rest of us adults a glass of wine! He also offered coca cola to the few children that were waiting!
He also tipped us off that Andy might be leaving through a different exit :)
Andy eventually came out and signed a few autographs and took some photos. He was in a bit of a hurry but didn't disappoint!
So, we headed back towards the hotel. We found the majority of the am.commers at Wetherspoons (where else!). We stopped and had a quick chat then dropped our stuff off at the hotel.
Popped back to the bar to have a drink with the gang and to tell them all about my exciting evening.
Rob was hungry so we headed to pizza hut to get takeaway, which we took back to the room for a picnic on the floor - due to the lack of furniture in our room!
Another good day of tennis to look forward to tomorrow!
We made our way into the arena and found our seats, as we were in a block with some other Andy Murray fans we said hello to the people seated around us and then got ready for the first match.
We had to endure the most dreadful 'entertainment' before the match - a pair of violinists called FUSE who played rock and roll on sparkly violins....what a noise!
I asked Rob to take some photos of the players as they came onto the court - he got the camera out of the bag only to discover that there was no compact flash card inside!
I then realised that I had taken it out a couple of weeks earlier to look at my Wimbledon photos! So, out came the little point and shoot to try and at least get some piccys!
So, the introductions complete and it was onto the first match. James Ward vs Gilles Muller - this was not a match that GB could be expected to win but James had a good run at Queens and so hopes were high that he might sneek a win.
Unfortunately, Muller was playing well and broke early in the first set. The second was closer and James was a break up, but Muller got the break back and took the set on a tie break. The third was not as competitive and unfortunately James was well beaten :(
After a short break it was onto the main attraction (for most) Andy Murray vs Laurent Bram.
Bram is unranked and does not play regularly on the tour so Andy was expected to win. And didn't he just do that!
It was an absolutely brilliant performance from Andy, he clearly wanted to win every point (and only let Bram win 15 in the match) and took the match in straight sets - 6-0 6-0 6-0!!
So, end of day one and the tie was all square between GB and Luxembourg. Tomorrow the Murray brothers team up in an effort to take a lead into the final day.
Back in March I was unable to make the trip to the Davis Cup tie in Bolton, due to work or studying or something else boring!
So, once that tie was won and it was confirmed that there would be another home tie in July I immediately booked time off work to allow me to attend no matter what the location turned out to be!
After it was announced that the tie would be held in Braehead (nr Glasgow) I set about making the arrangements! Tickets to the tie were arranged through Andy Murray's forum and then I looked into flights but they were extremely expensive, so instead I decided to do a roadtrip!
It's about 450 miles from home to Glasgow, so I booked a hotel in Carlisle on the way up to break up the journey a little bit!
The tie starts on the Friday afternoon so we decided to drive up after work on Thursday. We were a bit concerned that we might hit loads of traffic but everything went really smoothly and we arrived at Carlisle at about 10pm.
The following morning we left Carlisle around 10 and got to the Braehead arena at lunchtime. We bumped into some people we knew and had a quick chat and then went to grab a bite to eat.
We did a little bit of shopping and then checked into our hotel before going to watch some tennis!
