The brilliance of 21-year-old Edmund in the Davis Cup quarter-final win over Serbia ensured Great Britain’s place in the last-four, while 26-year-old Evans won the decisive fifth rubber against Russian Federation to earn GB a place in the World Group play-offs back in 2013.
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Meanwhile, for all his Davis Cup heroics, including winning deciding rubbers twice against Slovakia and Russian Federation, none of Evans’ wins had come in the World Group.
Argentina are looking to reach their fourth final in 10 years in Glasgow while in Zadar, Croatia, Marin Cilic was facing France’s Richard Gasquet in the first of the two reverse singles on Sunday.
“I am very emotional”.
“I am very emotional”, said Mayer, whose ranking has slipped from 21 to 114 in the world. The Great Escape of Glasgow? It means a lot. “I believe it will be an honour to play another final but today we will celebrate a semi-final victory”.
Has Murray played his last Davis Cup tie? “That’s why we chose him and fortunately we were right”.
He fell in over five hours to Juan Martin del Potro in the Friday first rubber, but rebounded to win the doubles Saturday and then the Sunday singles over Guido Pella.
The visitors’ best player, who was exhausted after beating Andy Murray in five hours and seven minutes on day one and losing against him and his brother Jamie in almost three hours in the doubles on day two, surprised everyone by declining to play the match that broke the 2-2 deadlock on Sunday afternoon.
JUAN Martin who? The Murray brothers are busy re-writing the Scottish sporting stereotype but for Birmingham’s finest, Dan Evans, there was a taste yesterday of what is known in these parts as glorious failure.
Orsanic added: “The fifth rubber, in case of having one, we needed a player who would be fit”.
Unfortunately though for Great Britain, the doubles victory would not be enough to set them on a course that would lead to the final stage of the competition. “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”.
For Argentina, it was a chance for another stab at the title that had thus far, frustratingly for a nation of such rich tennis talent over the years, eluded them in four previous finals.
And team captain Smith conceded the leading light of British tennis must consider his career when deciding whether to keep Davis Cup ties in his gruelling schedule next season.
Evans had been expected to come in for Kyle Edmund, who was named in the original line-up on Friday, and fresh from a superb run at the US Open he had every reason to be optimistic. Our team is in much better shape than it was a few years ago. “It gives players opportunities to play in what is an fantastic event”.
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Murray said: “It’s obviously great”.
