Great Britain Gears Up For Davis Cup Without Murray

Written by: on 27th March 2013
Sony Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne, Florida
Great Britain Gears Up For Davis Cup Without Murray

epa03640572 Andy Murray of Great Britain returns the ball to Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria during their third round match at the Sony Open tennis tournament in Miami, Florida, USA, 25 March 2013. The tournament runs through 31 March. EPA/ERIK S. LESSER  |

Britain may stage the sport’s most historic and arguably the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament in Wimbledon, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London’s 02 Arena may be one of tennis’ great box office successes and Andy Murray is currently both the Olympic and US Open champion. However when it comes to Davis Cup, the British are forced to call on two players outside the world’s top 200 to try and further the chances of a return to the elite World Group.

With Murray following the current trend of many leading players and making himself unavailable, James Ward and Jamie Baker, ranked 208th and 209th respectively on the ATP Tour World rankings, will contest the singles rubbers against Russia, twice champions this century, in the Euro/African Zone Group One tie at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena that runs April 5-7.

British captain Leon Smith, who was ironically Murray’s junior coach, is now resigned to playing without his only real star and tried to show a positive mindset as he faced up to the tie against the Russians, who can boast five players in the top 100, including the absent Mikhail Youzhny and Nikolay Davydenko,.

“James Ward has done fantastically well to come back from a long-term  injury sustained last year and brings a lot of Davis Cup experience to the team  having  played in six of the last seven ties for his country,” Smith said.

“It’s great to have Jamie Baker back in the team after him starting the year so well in qualifying at the Australian Open in January.”

Russian captain, Shamil Tarpischev, named his side shortly after Smith, with Dmitry Tursunov, currently world no.71 but once a top 20 performer, picked as lead player for the tie.

Evgeny Donskoy, ranked 78, is also included in the team. The 22-year-old gave Murray a scare in the second round in Indian Wells two weeks ago, showing some impressive shot-making in winning the first set before the world No 3 hit back. Also included in Tarpischev’s side are former top-35 players Igor Kunitsyn and 20-year-old Victor Baluda.

“We look forward to the challenge of competing against a very strong Russian side,” Smith said. “With the advantage of a home crowd supporting the team, we hope we can make life as difficult as possible for the opposition.”

Britain’s best hopes lie in the doubles, even though regular Ross Hutchins is still undergoing chemotherapy in his fight against Hodgkins Lymphoma. Hutchins’s regular partner Colin Fleming will link up with Wimbledon champion Jonny Marray.

Smith said: “Colin Fleming has had a great start to 2013 winning ATP titles in both Auckland and Marseille. In Jonny Marray we have the current Wimbledon doubles champion who also went on to reach the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the end of last year.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

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