Andy Murray believes perhaps his final act of escapology fittingly epitomised his career after battling back from the brink to dramatically delay his retirement at the Olympics.

The stubborn Scot, 37, miraculously saved five match points alongside Dan Evans to topple Japanese duo Taro Daniel and Kei Nishikori in a Roland-Garros thriller.

Murray, who pulled out of the singles to focus on the doubles here in Paris, looked down and out trailing 9-4 in the deciding tie-break but summoned all those stirring powers of resilience to reel off seven points on the spin and improbably keep a fairytale farewell alive.

Accompanied by a visibly fired-up Evans, who is nursing an injury and admits he is uncertain about playing his second round singles match in order to prioritise the doubles with Murray, the two-time Wimbledon champion bounced around Court Suzanne-Lenglen to send the vocal British contingent into raptures in front of a bumper television audience back home.

Murray, who will retire after these Games, has made a career of producing heart-thumping late night comebacks and reckons it’s apt he could deliver one final turnaround for the ages on the biggest stage of all.

“In my career I’ve turned around a lot of matches I’ve looked unlikely to win or people thought I shouldn’t have won,” he said.

“I’ve had that mental toughness, strength that was at times early on in my career was questioned.

“I’m really proud of that - I always try my best to fight and figure out ways to come though.

“I certainly couldn’t have done that on my own today – as a team, Evo played his part in that.

“I don’t think [I’ve saved five match points] in a row – in singles it’s almost impossible to do that, so I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.

“It’s probably up there [in terms of comebacks] – probably the way we were playing to that stage would have not suggested we were able to come back.

“It all clicked at the end and we played some pretty good stuff in those points.”

Murray and Evans looked down and out as Daniel and Nishikori, a former US Open singles finalist, breezed to the opening set 6-2 in rapid time.

They rallied to restore parity with a 7-6 (5) triumph but when their Asian opponents opened up daylight in the deciding tie-break, their hopes looked dead and buried.

But back came the Brits in stirring style and, on a day when Tom Cruise was in Paris watching four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles in action, a fizzing ace from Murray injected genuine life into their hopes of pulling off Mission Impossible.

And they held themselves together to astonishingly edge over the line, with Evans a formidable force at the net and Murray at his indefatigable best to help haul them to victory.

Evans, who had beaten Tunisian Moez Echargui earlier in the day but remains unsure on his second round participation, joked: “I’ve never saved five match points in a row and I never will again – he certainly won’t!

“If it happens next match, I’m out!

“It’s unbelievable he’s done it in doubles – it pretty much sums him up.

“It’s something I’ll remember forever but it would be amazing if we could go on to do something really special this week.”

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