Brits on the road to Rouen

GREAT BRITAIN suffered their first Davis Cup whitewash since 2009 after Jamie Murray and Dom Inglot lost in the doubles yesterday.

The defeat by Nicolas Mahut and Julien Benneteau enabled France to wrap up a 3-0 win in Rouen and go through to the semi-finals in September, in which they will meet either Serbia or Spain.

After straight-sets defeats for Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans on day one, the chances of an away win were remote at best.

The doubles was much tighter and Murray and Inglot had chances to win each of the first three sets but instead suffered a narrow 7-6 5-7 7-5 7-5 defeat to end their campaign for another year.

Britain have twice come from 2-0 down to win Davis Cup ties, most recently against Russia in Coventry in 2013. But, if that was unlikely, this was miracle territory without the injured world No.1 singles star Andy Murray.

Mahut was robbed of his Wimbledon-winning partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert through injury but Benneteau was hardly a weak substitute.

He is a Grand Slam winner himself in doubles and whose partnership with Mahut goes back to their junior days – they were 1999 US Open boys’ champions.

The clay surface made things even tougher for Britain but Murray and Inglot, playing together for the fourth time, were the stronger pair for much of the match and were left to rue costly errors at important moments.

They wasted three set points against Benneteau’s serve in the first set. They levelled when Inglot’s brilliant lob broke the Benneteau serve at 5-5 in the second set before Murray served it out.

But the Britons conceded the third set when Murray double-faulted, having saved two set points.

The pressure ramped up through the fourth, reaching fever pitch when Murray’s volley bounced off the tape and back onto his own side to give France victory.