Double dose of troubles for Davis Cup

THE conspiracy theorists will argue long and hard about the events of this weekend. When the news filtered through that Nick Faldo had left Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood on the sidelines in the Ryder Cup, the general consensus was that he had lost the plot. But when John Lloyd left Andy Murray out of the crucial doubles match in the Davis Cup tie with Austria, most observers believed he had gone stark, raving bonkers.

Instead of fielding the Murray brothers, a partnership that had reached an ATP tour final in the past and a double act that has the potential to beat anybody, Lloyd, Britain's captain, selected Jamie Murray and Ross Hutchins. And Murray and Hutchins lost 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 leaving Britain trailing Austria 2-1 with only two rubbers left to play.

If Britain are to stay in the World Group, the top tier of the Davis Cup competition, they must win this tie. Failure would consign them to the lower reaches of the competition, the Euro-Africa zone, group one, and would mean they could not compete with the world top 16 nations again until 2010.

True, the elder Murray brother is a world-class doubles specialist with a world ranking of 33, but Hutchins plays at a level well below that. Ranked 86, Hutchins is a decent enough chap who will fight to the bitter end, but he has no real weapons in his armoury and, at this level, his reactions are a split second behind the main men.

Andy Murray had made himself available to play in the doubles but, having picked up a slight groin strain earlier in the week, Lloyd chose to rest him for a day before the reverse singles today.

In the first of today's fixtures, the Scot must take on Jurgen Melzer, the world No.41 and the man who came within two points of beating him in New York a couple of weeks ago. Their US Open showdown took nearly four hours to complete and with that in mind, Lloyd wanted his top player to be rested and ready for the fray.

Should Murray win, then Britain's chances would hinge on Alex Bogdanovic who takes on Alex Peya. In eight outings at Wimbledon, Bogdanovic has won just four sets and never registered a win. In Davis Cup on any surface, he has never won a live rubber. Obviously talented but mentally as brittle as an elderly eggshell, the thought that the nation's hopes rest on his sloping shoulders is quite alarming.

"Peya hasn't got a great Davis Cup record himself," Lloyd said, gamely. "I fancy Alex's chances. Alex doesn't say too much but I think he realises there's a big opportunity. When you've got someone who hasn't played that many five-set matches it's difficult to get them to understand that there are many, many dips in five-set matches. You have to re-adjust and be strong in your belief and sometimes he lacks that, but we're going to keep on him. I'm going to be kicking him a lot on court tomorrow if necessary."

Lloyd is hoping that he will not be kicking himself by the end of play. The fact that Britain's Davis Cup ambitions were in the less-than-secure hands of Bogdanovic was entirely his fault, and he was the first to admit it. But if he had risked his key singles player in yesterday's doubles and Britain had still been 2-1 down, Lloyd would have been in an even worse position with Murray potentially tired and even more injured before he took on Melzer.

"It was my decision," Lloyd said. "If we lose the match then I'll take the heat for that. That's what I'm here for. And looking at their team today and the way they played, I don't think it would have made any difference who played them today. They were bloody good. But I want to make those decisions because I have to look at the bigger picture. We have to win three matches and I still believe we will."

For Jamie Murray, the whole experience was clearly miserable. He played far below his best and coupled with the Austrians playing solidly throughout and brilliantly at times, he could do nothing to stop the rout.

"I certainly didn't play anywhere near the level I could play," he said. "That didn't help our chances. We got our butts handed to us for an hour and half and it's not good to go out there in front of all your fans and for me to perform the way that I did.

"It didn't help that they played far better than I expected them to play, particularly Melzer. But it doesn't feel good to have 9,000 people out there cheering for us and we're laying eggs out there."

The simple fact is that Britain will struggle to compete at the top level of the Davis Cup as long as this team is a two-man band. For a decade Britain had two top singles players in Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski who worked themselves narrow to try and get the team into the World Group and to stay there. In all those years, they never won a World Group tie and spent much of their careers living in that twilight zone of the World Group relegation play-off round.

Now Britain can call on a top singles man and a top doubles specialist in Andy and Jamie Murray but still it is not enough. Lloyd took his risk yesterday but if his team loses, it is not his fault – he was merely trying to protect his resources.

His problem is the same as it has always been: he does not have enough resources.