Andy Murray was left fighting back tears as he missed his grandmother's funeral to compete in the Davis Cup Finals.
The British professional tennis player, 36 who has previously been ranked number one in the world, beat Switzerland's Leandro Riedi 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-4 in the Davis Cup Finals on Friday, 15 September. Overcome with emotion he dedicated the victory to his late grandmother whose funeral was on the same day.
In his on-court interview following his triumphant win for Great Britain, Murray said: "Today is a tough day for me.
"It's actually my gran's funeral. I'm sorry to my family that I'm not able to be there. Gran that one is for you."
Murray was visibly emotional as he spoke and paused a few times to compose himself with the crowd showering him with their support following the gruelling three-hour match. He detailed the win against Davis Cup debutant Leandro Riedi, 21 and said: "It's obviously incredible to get through that one, it easily could have gone the other way.
"It was ridiculous the shots he was pulling off, amazing, amazing returning. I kept fighting and tried to stay focused and managed to turn it round.
"It's difficult because we were expecting [Dominic] Stricker to play, the left-hander and I've been preparing for that and practicing and then you find out an hour before it was him and I'd never played him before or practiced with him.
"I knew he was a shot maker but he sustained it for a really long time today and I had to make some adjustments during the match. The team help with that as well so thanks to them for that."
The Davis Cup Finals comes after Great Britain beat Australia 2-1 on Wednesday after Jack Draper and Dan Evans won their respective singles matches against Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur. Captain Leon Smith went on to pick Andy Murray and Cameron Norrie to play the singles matches against Switzerland in a turn of events.
Speaking ahead of his match, Murray revealed he had actually offered to withdraw from the team after being slammed out of the US Open in the second round against Grigor Dimitrov. He said: "At that moment, straight as I came off the court, I wasn’t in a great place after losing in a Slam.
"I said [to captain Leon Smith], if I'm not needed, I completely get that. But, for whatever reason, he asked me to come and I said I would come.
"I've always loved playing Davis Cup and any event where you're competing for your country. We have a great group of guys, I love being part of this team, we've got great staff as well. Everyone gets on extremely well.
"I do genuinely believe the team can win the event. That's a huge motivation to be a part of it. I want to help the team in any way I can, whether that's on the court or off. We'll see what happens."
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