GB WIPED OUT IN DAVIS CUP
Chalk up another UK sporting disaster. However the last time Great Britain got 'swept', 'whitewashed' call it what you will in a Davis Cup tie was back in 1995, Greg Rusedski's first Wimbledon as a Brit was that year.
Rusedski's still hanging around, though as far as the Davis Cup is concerned, Tim Henman's been and gone. Tim has certainly had his uses over the years but he's decided to call it quits to concentrate on his fading individual career. So we came into a World Group playoff tie with captain(and early 90s half-decent player) Jeremy Bates having to rely primarily on Rusedski and Andy Murray. Not a bad double act you'd think. Slight problem, the draw had sent us to Switzerland, specifically a clay court in Geneva and you know the guy Roger Federer, the guy who's pretty much been unstoppable in the tennis world recently? Well he's Swiss.
So, considering beating Federer a mission impossible, Bates decided not to play Murray(as Britain's official number two for this tie) against Federer for the first singles match on Friday, nope he decided to give a Scottish guy called Alan Mackin what was effectivly a kamikazee mission. For a comparision, think Chelsea vs Kingstonian, think guy walking in front of a tank. In Mackin's position, I'd have settled for not losing 6-0 6-0 6-0. The 6-0 6-0 part happened and it wasn't long before the commentators were worshipping at Federer's feet. Mackin managed to hold serve a couple of times in the third set to get off the court with some pride but that was pretty much a 'rubber' given away.
It left Bates betting large on Murray being able to beat Stanislas Wawrinka in the second rubber that day. Given that I'd never heard of Warrinka, that seemed a reasonable bet. However this Swiss guy turned out to be pretty good himself and soon broke Murray's serve leading to a snapping up of the first set 6-3. The second set could only be settled by a tie break which Murray took a 3-0 lead in...before blowing it along with with second set. Murray broke serve once in the third set but Wawrinka still kept his edge and won the third 6-4. Murray dids has a few classy moments but given that this is the guy who is supposed to take care of British tennis after Tim and Greg are gone, I'm hoping that this was just a minor oops. Bottom line though, Bates had lost his bet, and now we needed a phoenix effort which included Murray beating Federer on Sunday.
First things first though, was a doubles match on Sunday. Representing GB was Rusedski and Murray. Representing Switzerland was Federer and a guy called Yves Allegro. The first set was a tight one with neither double act giving an inch, until the Swiss pair broke through for 7-5. Then the British pair at long last turned on the class. Alegro's serve got hammered, even Federer's serve got broken late on and both Greg and Andy laid down their calling cards in a 6-2 win. Breaks of serve were exchanged in the third set and GB had to come back from 5-2 behind to force a tie break...and what happened in the tie break I'm not quite sure, bottom line, the Swiss won it 7-1. Still, GB were still standing but by the skin of their teeth. Unfortunatly the Swiss broke serve early doors in the fourth set and never looked back.
For the record Switzerland's George Bastil beat another GB nobody David Sharwood 6-3 6-0 and though Mackin managed to give Wawrinka one heck of a fight, he still went down 7-5 7-6.
And so it's back to square one again.
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