Monday, 21 September 2009

Britain relegated as Evans loses again

Dan Evans: lost both his singles rubbers
Great Britain have lost their Davis Cup relegation play-off to Poland after Dan Evans was defeated in the deciding rubber by a player ranked 476 places below him.

Earlier in the day Andy Murray had given the home support hope in the Liverpool Echo arena by levelling the tie at 2-2, winning his reverse singles in straight sets.

But British world number five Evans went down 6-2 6-1 7-5 to Michal Przysiezny - a result which means Team GB must now fight it out alongside other world tennis minnows such as Egypt, Monaco and Lithuania in Group Three of the Davis Cup.

Przysiezny's current world ranking of 678 (Evans is world number 302) is a little misleading. The Pole was ranked as high as 190 in March of this year and started the match with a composure which makes it a mystery how he has dropped almost 500 places in the world rankings in just over six months.

The lower-ranked player achieved a service-break to love to go 3-1 up and looked secure on his own serve as 19-year-old Evans, standing a large distance behind the baseline, struggled to keep the ball in play.

There was little home cheer as Przysiezny secured a double-break to take the first set 6-2, displaying a willingness to come to the net that most clay-court specialists aren't meant to possess.

The second set started even more dismally for Great Britain than the first set had, the Pole picking his moments to make muscular approach shots and break for 2-0.

A double fault from Evans saw him concede a further break on the way to losing the second set 6-1, a smash into the doubles tramlines with an open court at his mercy suggesting that a turnaround was unlikely.

The Birmingham-born player again dropped serve at the first time of asking in the third set but levelled for 1-1 when he let a smash from his opponent go long, achieving his first break of the match.

A strategy of taking the pace off the ball and making the Pole over-hit at the baseline helped a resurgent Evans to go 4-2 up.

But the Pole showed a surer touch with his volleys and drop shots as he came back to 4-4.

At 4-5 down Przysiezny again regrouped, firing some fine groundstroke winners to claim eight points in a row and then serve out for the set, the match and the tie.

Britain's relegation to what is effectively the third tier of world tennis might mean that team captain John Lloyd's job will be reviewed. Radio pundits were already questioning his preparation for the game, though he had little option but to give Evans his Davis Cup debut as higher-ranked players such as James Ward and Josh Goodall were unavailable through illness and injury.

What isn't in doubt is the bravery and commitment shown by Andy Murray. The Scot revealed yesterday that his wrist injury is so bad that had it been an ATP prize money tournament rather than a Davis Cup tie he would have refused to play.

Less certain now is whether he will continue to play Davis Cup at a level far below his high standards when there is no sign of any decent British players emerging to help him carry the heavy burden of winning ties single-handedly.ADNFCR-708-ID-19371460-ADNFCR

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