Rubber 4 will feature two top ten talents, as world no. 2 Andy Murray squares off against world no. 6 Kei Nishikori.
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Kei Nishikori has the court he wants, now it’s up to he and his teammates to overcome a tough challenge from champion Britain when their Davis Cup tie starts on Friday.
Dan Evans has been called in as a last minute replacement for the injured Kyle Edmund, as Great Britain begin the defence of their Davis Cup crown against Japan.
Grass is Lleyton’s best surface, and Davis Cup is his best event, but it is Aussie Sam Groth who will be called upon to do some damage against Americans John Isner and Jack Sock (Hewitt could enter the doubles equation or reverse singles on Sunday).
Edmund sustained the problem in practice on Wednesday and captain Leon Smith deemed him too much of a risk. “You get so much back out of it, so give as much time as you can, enjoy every minute – because, even though at the beginning it can be challenging with sleep and whatnot, you’ll miss it when it’s not there”.
“It was early on in the session”, said Smith, of Edmund’s injury, “and he just felt a bit of a niggle, something tightening up”.
“Therefore it would be a risk to him, a risk to the team”.
World No 1 Novak Djokovic has said he is “optimistic” of playing for Serbia in the Davis Cup after recovering from the eye infection that curtailed his Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
The feeling is that if everything goes well the World No. 1 will play already from next Friday.
Although Daniel said big players are used to taking blocks of time off, Murray said it would be different coming from a layoff and straight into a Davis Cup match.
“I thought the ties previous year were unbelievable”, Murray told reporters in Birmingham.
Having pledged his service to his country for the full duration of Britain’s participation, Murray was centre-stage alongside brother Jamie, who will anchor the doubles action against Japan tomorrow.
He continued: “I think he played great tennis in the match, and me I was nervous, tight”. Evans has played in fourteen Davis Cup rubbers, although he has lost ten of them.
Evans’ career appeared to be seriously on the wane previous year when his ranking dropped below 700, with a knee injury partly but not exclusively to blame. Few will forget his emotional message to his wife Kim after his loss to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open final.
Evans, ecstatic to be playing in his hometown, beat Nishikori in their only previous match at the 2013 U.S. Open, the year before Japan’s leading man reached the final.
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“I have to be open minded and not be stubborn and say, “I’m going to play all three days”. I can expect a certain amount of noise, it’s going to be something I’ve never experienced before, which is a little scary but mostly exciting”.
