The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Captain hails Davis Cup team strength
Captain Leon Smith is buoyed by the strength of his team as Great Britain prepare for their first Davis Cup campaign in two years.
By reaching the semifinals at the inaugural finals week in Madrid in 2019, Britain secured automatic qualification for the 2020 finals, which were then postponed for 12 months.
Another change in the format, with three cities now hosting the group stages, means Britain head to Innsbruck to take on France on Saturday and the Czech Republic the following day.
Fresh from his ATP Finals debut, Cameron Norrie will spearhead the British team but Smith has three more top-25 players at his disposal in Dan Evans, Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski – who was preferred to Jamie Murray – while Liam Broady will provide back-up.
It is a stronger line-up across the board than the team who won the title in 2015, although they are of course missing the X factor of a peak Andy Murray.
Smith said: “It’s such a positive having a team like this. What Cam has been doing this year is absolutely exceptional.
“Of course he wasn’t in our last squad and to go from that to being our number one player and closing in on a top-10 ranking, it’s really so impressive.
“Every single person respects what he’s doing.
“With Evo (Evans), he’s now been around that level for a while, sitting at 25, 26 in the world, and he can go higher.
“He’s capable of big wins, he’s got a huge amount of Davis Cup experience.
“Then in doubles we’ve got three at the top of the game. Joe Salisbury has had an exceptional couple of years on tour.
“He’s playing such a high level. He’s one of the best athletes on tour. With Neal playing on the ad court, that’s why we went with him.”
Many things about the new format are not ideal, not least Austria going into lockdown, meaning the ties will be played behind closed doors.
A great atmosphere in the stands and among the off-court staff has enabled Britain to consistently overperform since Smith took over the captaincy in 2010, so a two-year gap between ties presents a challenge.
“It’s so different,” said the Scot, who is also the Lawn Tennis Association’s head of men’s tennis. “Obviously we all used to love having two, three, four ties a year and coming together, and the home and away element was a strong appeal.
“You have to think of different ways to keep a team togetherness but what’s really helped us is the players are all playing on the main tour so they’re together a lot.
“It’s been a long gap, obviously. We’ve got great memories of what happened in 2019.
“We’ve been together for a long time. We’ve built up over a decade of team spirit.”
While Britain begin in Innsbruck, planning for the whole tournament is near enough impossible.
Winning the group would mean a quarterfinal in Innsbruck then potentially a semi-final and final in Madrid, but finishing as one of the best-placed runners-up would mean heading for the Spanish capital ahead of the last eight.