WEAK GB WIPED OUT

 

 

Well the last time Great Britain made it into the Davis Cup World Group we wound up facing Australia on a clay court in Sydney and with both Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski injured on that occassion we lost the tie 4-1. That was the last of a string of World Group appearances in the Henman-Rusedski era but to find a World Group win you have to go back to 1986 with Jeremy Bates leading the was to a 4-1 win over Spain on a clay court in Telford.

This time around, well history is certainly repeating itself. Our mission, beat Argentina on a clay court in Beunos Aires. Guess what though, we had to do so without Andy Murray - the 'only' player with the consistency in singles to give anyone a match andd the Argies had a pretty good side. We however had to rely on Jamie Baker and Alex Bogdanovic for our singles rubbers - two guys who though I had heard of them, were both in treble-figures the world rankings!

First up was Baker up against David Nalbandian, the Argie star player! Well Baker's serve was immediately broken and by the time the Brit won a game it was too late, he lost the first set 6-1. It didn't take so long for Baker to win a game in the second set and he came close to breaking his opponent's serve but still lost the set 6-3. Baker was broken early in the third though and though he broke back he throw a game on his serve away allowing Nalbandian to win in straight sets, 6-3 in the third.

Next up, Bogdanovic went up against Augustin Callieri. Despite winning the first point of the match, the Brit failed to break immediately and then got broken himself, broke back but Calieri broke through late on to win 6-3. Bogdanovic's serve was broken in the first game of the second set and he lost that 6-1. And the Brit wasn't really in the third set either, losing that 61. Overall, an absolutely disasterous first day for GB - the only way was up from here.

So it came down to the doubles. Jamie Murray and debutant Ross Hutchins vs Nalbandian and Jose Acauso. GB actually managed to win their opening game but the Argies broke them at the next opportunity and went on to win the set 6-2. The Argies ran the second set up to 5-2 but then GB staged a great comeback to force what turned out to be a marathon tiebreak only to love 7-6(13-11). That was it though, GB collapsed in the third set losing 6-0 and that was the tie over, Jamie Murray wondering "Oh brother, where art thou?"

There were a couple of dead rubbers to go, Acauso beat Bogdanovic 7-5 7-5 before Baker prevented a whitewash by beating Callieri 7-6(7-4) 6-4.

So that leaves us with another promotion/relegation playoff later this year.

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