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9000 fans turned up on a glorious days at court 1 hoping to see the British team go 2-1 up and take control of this tie.

 

What they did not expect was for the Austrians to play so wellbut more surprisingly on how abject the British pair played.

 

In a match that barely lasted 90 minutes Jamie Murray was broken to 30 in the very first game and the omens were there. A forehand winner from Ross Hutchins got the break right back though and it went with serve until 3-3.

 

When Melzer pushed a forehand long at 30-30 Ross had a serve to make it 4-3 for the Brits. What followed was an error from each British player and a brilliant top spin cross court winner from Melzer and the second break went to the Austrians.

 

That is where the competitive tennis ended. Melzer served out the set with a typical service winner.

 

Ross was broken again at the start of the second set and when Jamie dropped his serve again it was 0-3 and. At that point the Brits only won a single point in a run of 3 games.

 

The only glimmer of hope was in the 8^th game of the set when Melzer lost his serve for a game and after 4 deuces the Brits broke back to get it back to 3-5. Ross served again and quickly fell 30-40 down. They got it back to deuce but for the third time today Melzer hit a great top spin cross court winner and the second set was lost.

 

The third set didnt take long and further service breaks by both Ross and Jamie it quickly became 1-5 down. A love game from Melzer brought the victory fully deserved to the Austrians. Melzer hit 5 sizzling top spin winners where Knowle served 3 aces and no double faults. The returning of Julian Knowle was impeccable.

 

Tennis can be quite simple. Getting the ball over the net is key. Between them Jamie and Ross they netted over 30 times. Just not good enough at this standard.

 

If they had played really well the chances were that the Austrians would have won in 5 sets but Andy would have been happy to see Jurgen round around the court for 4 hours.

 

So we need Andy and Boggo both to win. Andy is odds on. Boggo is more uncertain.