Andy Murray admitted he was feeling the emotional and physical effects as Great Britain’s Davis Cup dreams hung by a thread tonight.
The world number two has barely stopped since winning Wimbledon and Olympic gold, while he missed his grandfather’s funeral to play in the semi-final match in Glasgow.
In a repeat of the Olympic final, he dug deep against Juan Martin Del Potro but the Argentine prevailed 6-4, 5-7, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in an instant classic that lasted five hours and seven minutes - the longest match of both men’s careers.
And then Murray showered and played chief cheerleader as Kyle Edmund was beaten 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 by Guido Pella.
"I'm very proud of how I fought. I fought for every point, tried as best as I could and that's all you can do,” Murray said.
"It was very fine margins. That happens in tennis and sport sometimes. It could have gone either way and he just played a little bit better in the fifth set.
"I've never played a match that long. I've played matches close to that length but none after an extremely long stretch of playing, so I don't know how I'll feel in the morning.”
Captain Leon Smith will now have to make a difficult decision for who lines up in Saturday’s doubles rubber, now a must-win match if Great Britain are to take their title defence into a third day.
Murray will be the preferred partner of US Open champion Jamie Murray but doubles specialist Dom Inglot could step in to give the British number one a chance to recover for Sunday.
In the other semi-final, France and Croatia are locked at 1-1 after victories for Richard Gasquet and Marin Cilic.
Gasquet cruised to a 6-2, 7-6, 6-1 victory over Borna Coric but Lucas Pouille was beaten in four sets 6-1, 7-6, 2-6, 6-2 by Cilic.
Sportsbeat 2016