Great Britain’s winning Davis Cup run may be over but there is every reason to feel positive, according to captain Leon Smith.
Advertisement
With Murray’s earlier victory over Guido Pella, this was all set up for what would have been the greatest comeback in the history of British tennis, after the defending champions had trailed 0-2 after the opening day, and victory for Evans would also have brought about a home final against Croatia in November.
It was only the third defeat in 17 ties stretching back to 2010, when Smith took charge with the team in the lowly Group 2 Europe/Africa relegation play-off against Turkey.
From a high of 21 in the rankings previous year, he has slipped to 114, well below Evans’ current career-high mark of 53.
Neither could reprise those heroics in Glasgow.
Mayer stepped in for the exhausted del Potro for the fifth and deciding match of the tie against Dan Evans, with the teams tied at two wins apiece. The Argentinian who has suffered awful injury problems, was rightly unprepared to risk undertaking the rigours of another singles outing after his five hour plus opener against Murray.
This great Davis Cup win made me think about a couple of more great wins in Davis Cup history. It’s a bonus. A few years ago it was a bit the reverse.
“To have singles players in the draws at ATP 500s, Masters Series, main draw of Grand Slams, with Dan and Kyle now joining them, it’s much, much better, so when we do get together for Davis Cup we now have better depth”. T here were a few cards we had to keep to ourselves just to keep Great Britain thinking.
Evans would have expected to play Juan Martin del Potro, but Argentina’s best player was severely compromised physically by his exertions in beating Murray over five hours on Friday.
He came into the tie already close to exhaustion after a momentous summer that included a second Wimbledon title and Olympic gold medal.
On the face of it, it was straightforward, but Murray spent much of the third set wincing and needed an off-court injury time-out.
Croatia, the 2005 champions, booked their berth in the final with a 3-2 win over France in Zadar.
Smith is all too aware of the toll such a commitment takes on Murray’s body.
Captain Orsanic praised his entire team, and concluded: “I believe it will be an honour to play another final, but today we will celebrate a semi-final victory”.
Advertisement
Evans is at a career-high ranking of 53, so could have been considered the favourite on paper, but Mayer was as high as 21 last season before injury problems and had won his last seven Davis Cup singles matches. “That is why we asked him to play the doubles to see if his quality could help Argentina claim an early victory but that didn’t happen”.
