James Ward and Dan Evans get the nod for Davis Cup

Published on Tuesday 23 February 2010 22:25

JAMES Ward will make his Davis Cup debut for Great Britain against Lithuania next weekend.

Captain John Lloyd yesterday confirmed his four-man team for the Europe/Africa Zone Group II tie in Vilnius, with Ward and Dan Evans given the two singles spots.

With British No 1 Andy Murray having decided to skip the match, Lloyd had to choose between Ward, Evans and Scotland's Jamie Baker, who will travel with the squad as a reserve.

Ward is the highest-ranked of the trio at 252 in the world but has had a mixed start to 2010, qualifying for the ATP World Tour event in Chennai but losing his last three matches.

Evans played in Britain's last tie against Poland but lost both his rubbers in straight sets, leading to Britain's relegation.

Doubles team Ken Skupski and Colin Fleming, as expected, make up the remainder of the team. The pair, known as Flemski, made an instant impact on the ATP Tour last year but have lost in the first round of their last three events.

Fellow doubles specialist Ross Hutchins finds himself a reserve despite reaching two main tour finals already this year and this week reclaiming the British No 1 doubles ranking.

Victory over Lithuania in the tie, which starts on 5 March, would put Britain on the road to promotion but is far from a certainty. Lithuanian No 1 Ricardas Berankis is 198th in the world and has been in good form this year while Britain's team cannot boast a single Davis Cup win between them.

Murray is in action at the Dubai Championships this week and faces Janko Tipsarevic in the second round after the Serbian yesterday enjoyed a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 victory over Italian Andreas Seppi.

In other first-round action, Russian fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko overcame a surprise first-set loss – and a niggling wrist injury – to beat France's Florent Serra 6-7, 6-4, 6-1, while sixth seed Marin Cilic powered past Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4.