Norrie bounces back to seal Britain’s win
Victory over Uzbekistan earns Davis Cup seeding Format change signals end of 118-year chapter
In their final tie in the old Davis Cup format, Great Britain signed off with a 3-1 victory against Uzbekistan in Glasgow yesterday.
As of next year, weekends like the one just gone will be impossible. The revamped competition will mean a drastic reduction of homeand-away ties, an end to best-offive-set matches and no more three-day ties.
As well as ensuring they closed this particular chapter of the 118-year-old Davis Cup with a win, defeating Uzbekistan also means Britain will be seeded for next year’s qualification round, so they will in theory have an easier passage into the inaugural World Cup-style tournament in November 2019.
They could yet be awarded a wild card into the finals, however, with the International Tennis Federation announcing its two picks ahead of the qualifying draw on Sept 26.
Back to Glasgow, and the victory was sealed by British No2 Cameron Norrie. On Friday, Norrie had choked spectacularly to waste a match point and a two-set lead in losing to Jurabek Karimov, the world No 434, but he showed no mercy yesterday.
Playing with far more authority, he thumped the even lower-ranked Sanjar Fayziev – a late replacement for the injured Denis Istomin – 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 in 1hr 53 min.
Against the limited world No516 Fayziev, Norrie righted the wrongs impressively from that dire defeat to Karimov. He played with greater variety and was far more aggressive.
After two epic five-setters on Friday, the Emirates Arena crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief when a backhand winner sealed a straightforward win for Norrie. Especially pleased was Norrie’s father, David, who was born in Glasgow and had travelled 11,000 miles from Auckland to watch his son.
Norrie said: “I think I was more clear on my service games and just handled it better. I was a lot more clinical than on Friday. I came out strong and I was really pleased with the way I handled everything, and I got better as the match went on.”
He said he was inspired by a message from England rugby hero Jonny Wilkinson. “He [Wilkinson] sent me a nice video to tell me to come out with a clean slate ... prove to yourself and everyone that you can get it done,” Norrie said.
For team captain Leon Smith, the focus now shifts to the qualification draw and the ITF’S wild-card decision. “They sent round their descriptor of how the criteria was going to work for the wild cards [a top 50 Davis Cup ranking or a player with a top 10 world ranking]. It’s going to be very interesting to see how they allocate it.
“It feels like the wild cards are going to be a tricky one for them to decide to allocate before the qualifiers. It’s difficult to have objective criteria. Clearly we’d be a strong candidate based on the last three or four years in the competition, and how we’ve hosted ties.”
If Britain do have to go through qualifying, the tie will be played next February, by which time they could be boosted by the return of Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund.
Looking ahead to the Davis Cup’s brave new world, Smith said: “We will embrace this next challenge. We’ve got a really good team and hopefully we can welcome back both Kyle and Andy next year.”