Andy Murray shows true colours as tennis icon strongly rejects Olympic fantasy that proves his winner streak

Overwhelmed Andy Murray admitted he cried tears of joy last night as he smashed his retirement back onto the shelf with another outrageous Olympics rescue act, writes Fraser Wilson in Paris.

A Braveheart performance with doubles partner Dan Evans saw the pair save another two match points against Belgians Saner Gille and Joran Vliegen before securing a win to move to within three wins of a golden send-off. It came two nights after rescuing five match points in the mother of all comebacks against Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel. And Murray - seen slumped in his chair with his head in his hands after the titanic victory - admits they are closing in on the most special of Olympic goodbyes.

His serve set up Evans to smash home the winner and send the small but ferocious GB crowd into orbit - and spark wild scenes on the court between the Brit pair. And having confirmed last week this tournament will be the last of his remarkable 19-year career Murray and his playing partner showed it’s going to take something pretty special to stop their quest for a medal. The duo now have a day too recover before facing the winner of the last 16 tie between America’s Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul and Dutch duo Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer.

Murray said: “It’s unbelievably emotional. You’re unbelievably happy then I don’t know what happens but it’s happy tears. I don’t know why that’s the case. I was extremely happy and excited we got through another amazing finish It takes a lot out you that sort of stuff so I’m glad we get a day off tomorrow. We never played well in the first match and were quite lucky but today was very different. If I’d been stood here having lost that match we’d have been really disappointed because we played well, much