Davis Cup final 2015: Why Andy Murray and Great Britain may be the biggest one-man team for 10 years
Should Andy Murray win his three rubbers at this week's historic Davis Cup final against Belgium he will not only secure the title for Great Britain for the first time since 1936, he will also achieve two major milestones in the competition.
Britain's progress to a first final of tennis' premier international team tournament for 37 years, which starts today is almost entirely down to Murray. He has either won single-handedly or contributed to eight of the nine points they needed to overcome the United States, France and Australia in previous rounds.
The Scot is odds-on to win his three rubbers in Ghent and take his total contribution of wins to 11. In doing so Murray would become the first player to make such a large individual contribution to a Davis Cup-winning team for 10 years, when Ivan Ljubici was equally influential for Croatia.
Furthermore, victories in both of his singles matches would make Murray only the second player, after John McEnroe in 1982, to play and win eight singles rubbers since the competition's current format was introduced 34 years ago.
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Great Britain's reliance on the world No2 has been so strong that only one rubber – James Ward's singles victory over John Isner in the first-round tie against the United States – has been won without his involvement.
Previous Davis Cup winning sides have rarely been so dependent on one man.
Novak Djokovic was involved in seven wins as Serbia clinched the 2010 title, over half of his team's 13 wins.
Other winning teams, such as Spain in 2008, 2009 and 2011, have spread duties across a broad base of talent.
Spain's team in those years included Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco, who have all enjoyed rankings in the top 50 during their careers.
Britain's team, by contrast, had to pick between youngster Kyle Edmund, who is ranked 100 in the world, and James Ward, ranked 156, to join Murray in singles action on Friday and Sunday.