Britain’s Andy Murray playing with Britain’s Daniel Evans reacts playing Belgium’s Sander Gille and Belgium’s Joran Vliegen during their men’s doubles second round tennis match on Court Suzanne-Lenglen at the Roland-Garros Stadium during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on July 30, 2024. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP)

Andy Murray cried “happy tears” after he delayed his retirement from tennis on Tuesday with another thrilling Olympic doubles win with Dan Evans where they saved match points for the second successive round.

Murray and Evans defeated Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-3, 6-7 (8/10), 11-9 to qualify for the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

They saved two match points in the final-set tie-break, two days after they had saved five match points in their opening-round victory.

In a rollercoaster clash on Court Suzanne Lenglen, the British pair wasted two match points of their own in a gripping second-set tie-break.

“It’s obviously unbelievably emotional and it was. You are unbelievably happy,” said Murray, 37, who sank in his chair courtside and buried his head in hands.

“And then for whatever reason, I don’t know what happened. It was like happy tears, I don’t know why.”

He added: “Excited that we managed to get through another amazing finish. It takes a lot out of you, that sort of stuff. So I’m glad we get a day off tomorrow.”

Murray, a highly accomplished tennis player with three Grand Slam titles, a world number one ranking, and two Olympic singles gold medals, has announced his impending retirement following the conclusion of his Paris campaign.

This year, he sustained a significant ankle injury and underwent a surgical procedure to remove a cyst from his spine. Consequently, he was unable to participate in singles matches for the final time at Wimbledon.

Despite overcoming seven match points across two rounds, Murray emphasized that this does not necessarily indicate the conclusion of his career with a third gold medal.

“The margins are so fine,” said Murray. “We really need to perform at a really high level in a couple of days.

“You build confidence by winning just like that today and your opponents see that. You are coming back when you’re behind and that builds belief.

“But you can’t have that mentality of like, oh, this is just going to happen. You know, we need to be switched on for the next one.”

The British pair’s next opponents will be either the third-seeded US team of Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul or the Dutch team of Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer.

A victory in this match will secure their place in the semi-finals.

Evans hailed Murray as “amazing”.

“I don’t think he wants to go home, does he?” said Evans. “I don’t know how he retires like that.

“We’re getting close, really close to doing something pretty special. We played great tonight.”