Davis Cup: GB on brink after doubles victory

DAVIS Cup captain Leon Smith played down expectations despite watching his Great Britain team take a 2-1 lead over Slovakia at Braehead yesterday to move to within one rubber of victory in the tie.

Dan Evans’ superb win over world No.65 Lukas Lacko in the opening rubber on Friday got the hosts off to a great start and, although James Ward lost to Martin Klizan, Britain edged ahead again yesterday afternoon when Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins beat Michal Mertinak and Filip Polasek 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 0-6, 6-3.

A victory for either Ward against Lacko or Evans against Klizan today would seal a very impressive win for Smith’s side without Andy Murray, who has been sending messages of support to the team from his training base in Florida.

But with both Slovakians ranked significantly higher than their opponents, the British captain knows the finish line is still a long way away.

The Scot said: “You’ve got to look at our players against their players, and they’re favourites. The rankings don’t really lie, but the good thing is we’ve got two opportunities and we just need one player to go out and put in a special performance.

“For me there’s not any pressure on them, they’re playing against higher-ranked players, and who knows what can happen. We saw on Friday that an upset can happen, and it could happen again, but it’s going to be really hard work.

“This is the level we want the boys playing at. Andy plays at it every week, the [doubles] guys do as well, but our other singles players need to improve. Dan and James, what they did on the first day, improved, and if they can keep going now and use this as another opportunity it can act as a catalyst not just for tomorrow but hopefully for the next few months and beyond.”

Yesterday’s win was the first for Fleming and Hutchins together in Europe/Africa Zone Group I and was another indicator of just how far they have progressed since linking up at the start of last year. They are already quarter-finalists at both Wimbledon and the US Open but Fleming, from Linlithgow, stressed how special it was to gain such a crucial victory for the team at the Braehead Arena.

“It’s the best (Davis Cup win) for sure,” he said. “It’s a win in Group I. We’ve got aspirations of playing at a higher level still but this was a win against a team that’s well respected and they’ve got a lot more experience than us of winning big Davis Cup matches.

“I think it helped that we played them at home and had great support. We felt like we played a good match, but not a great match. It was scrappy at times but it shows how far we’ve come that we can say that and be sitting here with a win so that’s a nice feeling.”

The British duo edged the first two sets before the momentum swung completely at the start of the third, which Mertinak and Polasek won in only 23 minutes. The key moment came in the opening game of the fourth, when Hutchins recovered from 0-40 down to hold serve, and the Brits went on to break in the sixth game before the Londoner sealed victory with an ace.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer suffered defeat for the second day in a row as the United States completed a comfortable victory over Switzerland in the World Group first round in Fribourg. Former world No.1 Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka needed to win the doubles to keep the tie alive after Friday’s two singles went to the US but after a good start the Swiss pair lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan. It was payback time for Fish who suffered two heartbreaking defeats in last year’s quarter-finals against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez and David Ferrer.

“It feels pretty good to win,” said Fish. “I certainly know what it’s like to lose and it’s not a great feeling.”

Federer has never won the Davis Cup and will have to wait at least another year to fill in one of the few blanks on his CV after a humbling couple of days in front of his home fans. He lost to big-serving world No.17 John Isner on Friday.

Holders Spain joined the Americans in the quarter-finals as they moved 3-0 ahead against Kazakhstan in Oviedo to give new captain Alex Corretja a pleasing start in the absence of Ferrer and Rafa Nadal.

Last year’s runners-up Argentina and Czech Republic also moved through comfortably with a day to spare against Germany and Italy respectively. Japan have an uphill battle in their first World Group tie for 26 years, 2-1 down at home to Croatia.

Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny kept Russia alive in their tie in Austria with victory in yesterday’s doubles, meaning the visitors now trail 2-1.