Murray says no to a Davis Cup homecoming
Hip rehab comes before tie against Uzbekistan Scot’s absence sees Dan Evans return in Glasgow
Andy Murray has been forced to turn down a sentimental return to Glasgow for one last Davis Cup tie, because he needs to keep rehabbing his chronic hip injury. With Kyle Edmund also unavailable, Murray’s absence has cleared the way for Dan Evans to return.
Last night, the Lawn Tennis Association announced Evans, Cameron Norrie and exciting prospect Jay Clarke as the three singles players who will face Uzbekistan on the weekend of Sept 14-16. The doubles specialists are Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot.
At a briefing in New York, Leon Smith, the British Davis Cup captain, explained that Murray had reluctantly accepted the verdict of his medical advisers. “He was seriously considering featuring in this tie, even though it wouldn’t have been optimal from a physical point of view, such is the draw of playing [at home].
“You saw what happened last time, in 2015 when both [Murray] boys hadn’t played competitively [in Scotland] for years and years – the noise that came out for that opening ceremony was bonkers.”
Murray has not returned home his dramatic loss to Fernando Verdasco last Wednesday, but instead flew to Philadelphia, which has become his regular rehab base since the start of the American hard-court swing five weeks ago.
Meanwhile, world No16 Edmund has also declared himself unavailable for next week’s tie. After his hugely disappointing first-round defeat in New York – during which he suffered cramps and was outlasted by 36-year-old Paolo Lorenzi – Edmund said that he had been battling the effects of a recurring viral complaint with “a complicated name”. So perhaps it is no surprise that he wants a break, although this has not prevented him from signing up for the Laver Cup – Roger Federer’s answer to golf ’s Ryder Cup – in Chicago the following week.
Smith said: “It’s up to them [Edmund’s team] to find out what happens with all their various health checks and what he’s doing fitnesswise. At least he can get a few weeks of uninterrupted strength and conditioning work, which obviously you can’t do if you’re trying to prepare for a Davis Cup match.”
The importance of this tie has been undermined by the recent vote to reform the Davis Cup. In any other year, Great Britain would be striving to maintain their five-year run in the World Group, while Uzbekistan – whose only top-400 singles player is world No 76 Denis Istomin – tried to unseat them. But the new format means that Britain are guaranteed a spot in February’s round of home and away ties, from which the winners will earn a spot at the week-long finals in November.
The British team is thus likely to be led by world No67 Norrie, whose father, David, was brought up in King’s Park, just a couple of miles from Glasgow’s Emirates Arena. The second singles spot will be contested by Clarke and Evans, who successfully qualified yesterday for the Cassis Challenger on the French Riviera. Clarke is now standing at No 174 in the rankings while Evans, who had to start from scratch after a 12-month ban for taking cocaine, is at No224 and rising. “Dan’s history is in the past,” said Smith. “It’s astonishing how quickly he’s moved up the rankings. He’s already guaranteed to make it to qualifying at the Australian Open.”
The LTA has introduced a children’s day on the Wednesday before the tie, taking inspiration from the US Open, and hopes to have 3,000 attending.
Meanwhile the temperature climbed again at Flushing Meadsince ows yesterday, requiring Novak Djokovic to leave the court twice during his fourth-round victory over Joao Sousa.
Djokovic was too good for Sousa in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 victory, but you could hardly call it comfortable. He took a six-minute bathroom break at the end of the second set, and then walked off again for a medical time-out at the next changeover. During his on-court interview, he said: “I prefer not talking about how difficult it is. I’m not 21 any more, I still don’t feel old but at same time there is a little biological clock that’s not in your favour.”
In the women’s event, last year’s runner-up Madison Keys swept past Dominika Cibulkova 6-1, 6-3, while Naomi Osaka reached her first grand-slam quarter-final by beating Aryna Sabalenka in three sets.