GHENT, Belgium — Giant foam fingers. A remarkable variety of percussion instruments. Vuvuzelas. Disturbingly oversize photos of the home players on wooden sticks. Copious face paint. And at least one trombone.
There were many elements that differed from the typical tennis match here on Sunday at the Flanders Expo exhibition hall — a venue whose sporting history includes a semiregular regional dog show — but amid the unusual cacophony of noise and spectacle, there was, also, a singular familiarity: Andy Murray played. Andy Murray won.
It was, in many ways, that simple at this Davis Cup final, where Murray’s third victory in three days helped Britain win most prestigious team competition in tennis for the first time in 79 years, beating Belgium, 3-1.