No-one who saw the delight on Andy Murray's face when a certain football result was mentioned yesterday would question his patriotism and nor would anyone who has ever seen him play his heart out for Great Britain in Davis Cup.
Murray, though, admitted yesterday that his loyalty to the latter cause might be severely tested if playing Davis Cup for his country starts to take too much of a physical toll on him. He has, however, called next week's Davis Cup promotion tie between Great Britain and Croatia at Wimbledon "the highlight of my career" and his commitment to the cause will be total, not least because he wants team-mate Tim Henman's career to end with a win.
It will mark the point at which Murray becomes the country's only world-class singles player, a position which, when it comes to Davis Cup, will place a huge physical and mental burden on him in the future.
"Davis Cup is something that I think every single tennis player really enjoys playing," said Murray, speaking at the launch of Royal Bank of Scotland's new Supergrounds scheme. "It's just difficult because it comes at hard times in the year straight after the grand slams and stuff, you know, when a lot of guys want to take time off.
"I don't think it's about playing for yourself, it's about doing what is right for your body. You know it's hard on you. If you look at what has happened to me a lot of the time when I have played Davis Cup in the past, such as after Ukraine last year; I was playing great before that, and I hardly won another match for the rest of the year. I hurt my neck when I played against Israel in Eastbourne last year.
"I hurt my back in Monte Carlo straight after Davis Cup this year. Maybe they have been coincidences, but there have been four or five different times when it has happened. It's not that I don't want to play Davis Cup, I love Davis Cup, but it's just that I'm hurting myself from playing it, so I have to make a decision whether to play Davis Cup."
What went unsaid was the dilemma which Murray may be unable to avoid for long - choosing between his own career and the needs of his national side. At least for now, patriotism is winning out. "It's tough on your body but the actual event I love," said Murray. "I love being part of a team, I used to love playing football when I was younger and this is the closest you can get to being in a team when it comes to tennis."
nHenman's wife, Lucy, gave birth to a baby girl, Grace, weighing 8lbs, 11oz yesterday afternoon. They have two other daughters, Rosie (4) and Olivia (2). The new arrival means that Henman will not join the Murrays for today's Betfair Turbo Tennis exhibition event in London. "My place is with my family at this happy time," said Henman.
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