Belgium again have the advantage of playing in front of their own fans for the final, having not left the country in the competition this year, but face their toughest test yet in a Great Britain team led by world singles number two, Andy Murray.
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The Davis Cup final is set to go ahead as planned in Ghent this weekend with increased security measures because of the ongoing terror alert in Belgium, the International Tennis Federation said Monday.
This season, like never before, Murray has dedicated himself to the Davis Cup as well as to his solo career, leading Great Britain to victories against the other three Grand Slam nations – defeating the United States in the first round, France in the quarterfinal and Australia in the semifinal. “It would be well-deserved, as well”.
“I know a lot of fans were staying there and planning on travelling through there”. Even if he doesn’t play, they still have a very strong doubles (team), because doubles can always be crucial. “I hope as many fans can travel over as possible to give us the best support but obviously we understand if people make another decision because of what’s been happening in Brussels”. We’re here now. Everything seems fine in Ghent.
Should he win both his singles – as he is heavily favoured to do – he would be just the third player – after John McEnroe and Mats Wilander – to win all eight Davis Cup singles matches in the same year.
Andy Murray said: “I think we just listened to all of the right people”.
The world number 16 continued, saying that British players “prefer grass courts, hard courts, fast courts”, so the slow pace offered by clay was the reason why they “chose” it. “We’re here”, he said.
The man in charge of the recovery since Vilnius is the team captain, Leon Smith, who was Andy Murray’s coach for part of his teenage years. Edmund, who had a vigorous hitting session with Murray yesterday afternoon, had a long trip back from Uruguay at the weekend. I feel pretty focused. “I just have to forget this match and to think about the matches of this weekend”. “It’s not like I’m coming from a 12-hour flight and changing surface”. I think it’s one of the main goals we have as a team. Belgium is in its first Davis Cup final since 1904 and it will be their first title if they win.
The Expo arena is a huge complex of exhibition halls.
“There is no reason to panic but it’s a shame a great moment for Belgian and British sport is being overshadowed by this”.
“They have to find ways to capitalise on the interest he has generated in tennis in this county”. “Of course, now they’re going to play away which makes it different in Davis Cup because of the crowd, different atmosphere that you get to feel in Davis Cup”.
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He went on to elaborate about the rarity of playing on clay indoors: “I think the fact that it’s indoors is fairly significant because there’s not one indoor clay court tournament throughout the whole year”. One was against Belgium in Glasgow in 2012, when Andy Murray did not play, while the other came a year ago on clay in Italy.
