Great Britain failed to reach the knockout stages of the Davis Cup finals after Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury lost the main doubles rubber to the Netherlands. The Group D tie in Glasgow was tied at 1-1 after Dan Evans won in the singles, before Cameron Norrie was beaten to set up a nail-biting finale. But Murray and Salisbury lost a thriller 7-6 (7-0) 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 to Wesley Kuhlhoff and Matve Middelkoop. The win puts the Dutch and the United States through to the next stage in November. Leon Smith’s side face Kazakhstan on Sunday but neither side can progress, while the Netherlands meet the United States on Saturday to decide who goes through to the Malaga competition as group winners. A minute’s silence was observed again before kick-off and the tie was played without the usual music between matches as a mark of respect during the period of national mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Disappointment for the “best” home team
Great Britain had arrived in Scotland with what it felt was its strongest ever squad in terms of depth, with three top 50 singles players as well as the world’s top and third-ranked doubles players. They were beaten 2-1 by the United States on Wednesday in an agonizingly close and grueling encounter, with the three matches going to three sets and the game almost over at 01:00 BST. With the United States then beating Kazakhstan on Thursday and the Netherlands triumphing in their opener against the Kazakhs, the permutations of this tie were clear for the hosts – win or you’re out. Dan Evans gave the passionate home crowd hope with a confident performance against Talon Greekspur, taking advantage of greater variety in his game and penchant for a superb pass to beat him 6-4 6-4 and send a packed Emirates Arena to jump into their court. feet in celebration. But their joy was short-lived when British number one Norrie produced a subpar performance against world number 35 Van de Zandschulp, who he had beaten 6-1 6-2 just a few weeks ago in Canada. Norrie, who was also off target in his match against American Taylor Fritz on Wednesday before turning it around, could not recover from a poor start after being broken in the third game of the first set. Although he saved three set points, the world number eight could do nothing for the fourth and was then promptly broken at the start of the second. World number 35 Van de Zandschulp was dominant on serve, collecting 13 aces and also hit 18 winners to Norrie’s four in a thoroughly deserved victory where he said he “played almost a perfect match”. And so he reached the double. Andy Murray had by far the biggest cheers this week when his name was announced, with the three-time Grand Slam champion returning to the men’s tournament for the first time since 2019. He had spoken of regretting the “mistake” of missing the Davis Cup last year and how he was now ready to help the team this year even if he didn’t end up playing. He ended up playing twice but couldn’t save the draw. He and Salisbury broke in the first game of the match to lead 3-1 but were broken at love to allow the Dutch to level at 4-4 and eventually take it to a tiebreak where they did not drop a point. The Brits perhaps began to sense that things might not go their way when Middelkoop won the most improbable point in that tiebreak, where he had stretched out on the floor at midpoint only to acrobatically leap and volley the winner into the net . . But there were more upsets to come as a hard-fought second set led to a seemingly inevitable tiebreak. A series of stunning winners from Murray drew cheers before complete silence as a strike from Middlekoop brought match point. Salisbury held his nerve – and his serve – in style with a blistering delivery that Middelkoop could only take so far and the Brits took the set when a Murray shot caught the net at a lucky spot to spark wild celebrations from their teammates who were watching. including a happy lap of honor from Evans. But missed chances at 3-3 and a sloppy service game from Salisbury in the next game got the party going as Murray hit out to give the Dutch pair a break that left them on serve for the match. Having waited 50 minutes from their previous match point, they were not going to miss another chance and secured victory when Murray scored.
