British No 1 Cam Norrie hangs tough to beat Taylor Fritz and level Davis Cup tie against the USA

Andy Murray trod the boards late in front of his adoring home crowd, but it was ultimately a deflating return to Glasgow as Britain went down 2-1 to the USA in their opening Davis Cup group match.

Finishing at 1am, he and Joe Salisbury went down 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to the crack American team of Rajeev Ram and Jack Sock before the hardy souls who had loyally stayed on until the end.

GB now have a lot of thinking to do before Friday’s match against Holland if they are to progress through this four-team group to make November’s World Group finals.

He and Neal Skupski lost the deciding doubles rubber to see Great Britain suffer a 2-1 defeat

Murray was chosen instead of doubles world No 3 Neal Skupski in a move that ultimately did not pay off against albeit strong opposition.

The 35 year-old Scot – overlooked for the singles – and Salisbury walked out just after 10pm to a fairly full Emirates Arena, and soon moved to a 3-0 lead before the Scot had his serve broken.

A desperately tight opener turned in the 12th game when three set points were created and on the last of them Murray scurried way out of the court to draw the winning error from his opponents.

Faced with two outstanding doubles players, one of whom is Salisbury’s US Open winning partner, they moved to 3-1 with the Scot’s retrieving and returning skills to the fore.

The Americans fought back and the crucial break came at 5-5 in the decider when the recent Flushing Meadows champion was broken.

Earlier Cam Norrie stepped up to his role as the British number one last night with a stirring rearguard action that kept his team’s Davis Cup hopes alive against the USA.

Cam Norrie celebrates his dramatic victory over Taylor Fritz on Wednesday night

The British No 1 stepped up to keep his team’s Davis Cup hopes alive against the USA initially

Norrie’s Glaswegian father David had flown all the way from New Zealand to watch the match

He repaired the damage of an opening defeat for Dan Evans by overcoming his American counterpart Taylor Fritz 2-6, 7-6, 7-5 to set up the late night decider.

At a career high ranking of eight, Norrie came perilously close to defeat in the second set before a passionate crowd that included his Glaswegian father David, who had flown all the way from New Zealand to watch.

Having saved break points late on in the second, he took the tiebreak 7-2 but failed to serve out the match at the first time of asking at 5-4 in the third. At 5-5 he broke to love with a series of rifled return winners and made no mistake second time round.

‘It just came down to a couple points,’ said Norrie. ‘I wasn’t really playing my best at all but the more I was backed into a corner, the better I actually played today.

‘It’s quite a tricky surface. Playing quite lively, hot conditions in New York, to indoor, quite slow, heavy balls. It was a little bit of getting used to. I mean, I like it slow, but it’s pretty dead.’

Norrie repaired the damage of an opening defeat for Dan Evans who lost to Taylor Fritz

It has been four years since the British team last played at the Emirates Arena, a regular venue in the team’s glory years around the middle of the previous decade.

The atmosphere was deliberately subdued before the tie to acknowledge the national mourning. A lone piper played before the national anthems, and there was no music or razzamatazz between games and points.

The attendance was nonetheless healthy for the 4pm start, which always looked like leading to a ridiculously late finish, given the sluggish speed of the court and the even matched nature of the teams.

Leaving Murray out of the singles was a significant call from Captain Leon Smith, because Evans’s record in Davis Cup matches against top 60 players was two wins from eight matches, far inferior to his overall tally when flying solo.

By the end of the contest it was two victories from nine, with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 defeat seeing him unable to prise open the defences of world No 29 Paul, ranked four places below.