Murray to the fore as captain Lloyd takes no chances against Poland

Published on Thursday 17 September 2009 22:48

GREAT Britain captain John Lloyd has opted for a safety-first strategy in this weekend's Davis Cup match against Poland by choosing Andy Murray to play on all three days.

The doubles partnership can be changed any time up until an hour before the second day's play begins, so Murray's fellow Scot, Colin Fleming, could still get the call to partner Ross Hutchins, but for the moment the world No3 is being asked to play a full part in claiming the three points which will give Britain victory. The urge to leave as little as possible to chance is understandable. The losers of this match at Liverpool's Echo Arena will be relegated to Euro Africa Zone Group Two, the third division of the Davis Cup – a lowly level at which Britain last played in 1996.

Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski got the team out of that parlous position then, and demotion back to it now would be a humiliation for a country which is showing signs of steady improvement thanks largely to Murray's inspiring example. The difference between today and 13 years ago, of course, is that the squad contain only one world-class player, not two.

Several contenders have vied for the supporting slot behind Murray, with little or no success. The man charged with doing so this weekend is Davis Cup debutant Dan Evans, a 19-year-old from Birmingham, who is ranked 302nd in the world.

"I'm just looking forward to it," Evans said. "It's a challenge, but I'm capable of winning my matches."

At 5ft 9ins, Evans is around a foot shorter than his first opponent, Jerzy Janowicz, but he has an irreverence and a fighting spirit which should stand him in good stead. He has been disciplined in the past by the Lawn Tennis Association for what he described as "a few misdemeanours along the way", which included an unsanctioned night out during Wimbledon, but Lloyd has hopes of channelling his energy in the right direction. "Dan has shown a lot of ability," he said. "When I watched how he handled the week (I decided to pick him].

"You never know how people are going to handle Davis Cup when you get closer to the matches. I made my decision about 48 hours ago." That decision would in fact have been forced on Lloyd had he not made it voluntarily, as James Goodall, the other singles player in the squad, came down with glandular fever this week and left the camp yesterday.

The captain's choice, however, appeared vindicated when Evans was asked about what could be a physically intimidating encounter with Janowicz this afternoon. "It's a good match-up for me," he said. "He doesn't move around that well."

By the time Evans comes on to the court this afternoon, Britain should have secured their first point of the tie. Murray's opponent, Michal Przysiezny, is ranked 678th in the world, and is unlikely to detain the Scot for long. That should also be the case on Sunday with Janowicz, who is 261st in the rankings, but Murray is taking nothing for granted.

"I'll try and win my matches as comfortably as possible," he said. "If the guy plays great then I'll be ready for that. Obviously you have to prepare for a tough match. It's better than doing it the other way round, because if you prepare for an easy match and the guy makes it difficult for you, you can panic a little bit."

If Evans wins today – and for all his bravado he will have to return pretty well to do so – Murray may just be allowed tomorrow off before returning on Sunday to wrap up the tie.

Murray is receiving daily treatment on his injured wrist, but he remains confident of playing on all three days of the tie if required, and believes that staying mentally alert will be a bigger problem than remaining up to the challenge physically.

"By Monday, if you've played three days you're mentally quite tired, because when you're not playing you're supporting. Davis Cup can be quite stressful. Physically, it won't be a problem. I'm going to take a few days off anyway, so I've got that to look forward to."

After those days off, he and his coaching team will look back to the US Open, in which he lost in the fourth round to Marin Cilic. Asked about that defeat yesterday, he again proved unwilling to say too much about it.

"I played a bad match and that's it," said Murray. "It's not going to change the way I view my year as a whole. I think that I'll be a better player next year."