Doubling up holds key while Andy recovers

JAMIE MURRAY and Neal Skupski were once again Great Britain’s Davis Cup heroes as a team missing Andy Murray defeated Kazakhstan to set up a quarter-final with Germany.

Captain Leon Smith decided to leave Andy Murray out for this one to give him a rest after he battled for almost three hours on Wednesday to help get Britain off to a winning start against the Netherlands.

In his place, Kyle Edmund stepped up to produce a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Mikhail Kukushkin that was arguably his best performance of the season.

That gave Dan Evans the chance to send Britain through but, as against Dutchman Robin Haase on Wednesday, the British No.1 was unable to build on a positive start against Alexander Bublik and fell to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 defeat.

With Britain unable to claim one of the two spots reserved for best-placed runners-up because of the number of sets they had lost, it was all or nothing for Jamie Murray and Skupski against Bublik and Kukushkin. And the British

i’ve been practising well. i was eager to put myself out there and play my way

pair produced their second victory of the week in Madrid, winning 6-1, 6-4.

Great Britain face Germany today in a last-eight tie that on paper appears very tight. There will be plenty to mull over selection-wise for Smith, but Edmund’s performance has surely booked him a singles spot again.

Edmund (inset) has had a poor season, dropping from inside the top 20 to 69 in the rankings, but produced an almost flawless display against a player ranked two places higher.

He said: ‘I’ve been practising really well. I was trying to just transfer that on to the match court. I was eager to really put myself out there and play my way.’

Evans, though, is less happy with his form. Asked about Britain’s strength in depth, he said: ‘At the minute, the No.1 guy is the weak one.’