A tearful Andy Murray dedicated a Davis Cup win to his grandmother Ellen after revealing he missed her funeral because it was the same day as his match.
Murray gave Great Britain a winning start against Switzerland by edging past Leandro Riedi 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-4.
Overcome with emotion, Murray said: “I’m sorry to my family I’m not able to be there. Gran, this one is for you.
“I spoke to my dad about it and he said ‘she’d want you to play’. He said ‘make sure you win’ – so I did.”
After clinching a hard-fought win over 21-year-old Riedi, Murray told the crowd about the emotional strain he was playing under.
Great Britain captain Leon Smith said he did not know about the situation, adding Murray playing in “very, very difficult” circumstances demonstrated the player’s strength of character.
“I’m sure it was tough for him to miss. What he went out and did was quite incredible, as well as being vitally important for the team,” said Smith.
Following a moving on-court interview, Murray sat on his chair with his head under his towel, before receiving another consoling round of applause from fans at Manchester’s AO Arena.
It came after the three-time Grand Slam champion showed his quality and experience to come through a tough test against Riedi, who was making his Davis Cup debut.
“It’s incredible to get through that one – it easily could have gone the other way,” said Murray, who helped Britain win the Davis Cup in 2015.
“It was ridiculous the shots he was pulling off, some amazing returning.”
With Britain aiming for a place in November’s eight-team knockout stage, Murray put his nation on the path to victory in the opening singles match of the group-stage tie on Friday.
British number one Cameron Norrie missed the chance to secure the win when he lost 7-5 6-4 to three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka later.
However, Dan Evans and Neal Skupski secured a second straight GB win by beating Swiss pair Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Stricker 6-3 6-3.
Four nations – Britain, Australia, France and Switzerland – are playing in the group-stage event in Manchester.
They all play each other once in a round-robin format, with the top two countries going through to the knockout stage – known as the ‘Final Eight’ – in Malaga in November.
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