Andy may face Roger a day after Davis Cup

ANDY MURRAY’S absence from next week’s Davis Cup quarterfinal was confirmed yesterday, but he has not ruled out playing in a charity exhibition match against Roger Federer the following night.

It seems the world no 1 is still holding out hope he may be able to fulfil his commitment to Federer to play his ‘Match For Africa’ in Zurich on April 10.

If he appears in Zurich immediately after Britain’s tie, it presents a slightly awkward dilemma for Murray. There is, of course, a big difference between best- of-five matches on clay in the Davis Cup and a few exhibition sets, but Federer’s involvement means it would attract a lot of attention.

Murray has a reciprocal arrangement, whereby Federer will play him at his own charity event in Glasgow on november 7.

Murray has not divulged details of his elbow injury, but it appears to be affecting his serve. His next scheduled tour event is the Monte Carlo Open on April 17 but he could wait to return at the Madrid Open in early May.

GB captain Leon Smith said of the France match last night: ‘It would be too quick to come back, that’s the reality of it. Hopefully he can be back for Monte Carlo.’

Federer was last night trying to reach the last eight of the Miami Open, after Rafael nadal booked his place in the quarters with a 6-4, 7-6 win over nicolas Mahut.

Jo Konta is due to face world no 5 Simona Halep today in a bid to make the women’s semi-finals.

The Brit has been putting together another good season and reached the last eight with a 7-5, 6-1 win over the much-improved Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena.

Konta is a big music festival fan but resisted the temptation to visit the massive ultra event here over the weekend. Techno is not really her scene anyway.

‘We walked by and it was loud,’ Konta said. ‘There are five stages so you couldn’t quite differentiate between what was going on, they’re trying to drown each other out.’

Halep has had a relatively poor year after being hampered by a knee injury but on Monday night she saved a match point before beating Australian Sam Stosur.