Davis Cup - Brits humiliated by Lithuania

Eurosport - Sun, 07 Mar 17:00:00 2010

Great Britain face another Davis Cup relegation play-off as Dan Evans lost 6-7 7-5 6-0 2-6 6-4 to Lithuanian Laurynas Grigelis in their Europe/Africa Zone group II clash in Vilnius.

Britain's James Ward returns the ball during his Davis Cup tennis match with Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis - 0

The teenager was beaten by Grigelis - who is ranked 269 places below Evans - in five sets after carrying British hopes on his shoulders thanks to Jamie Ward's earlier loss to Ricardas Berankis to level the tie at 2-2.

Doubles pair Ken Skupski and Colin Fleming had put Britain in the driving seat after defeating Grigelis and Dovydas Sakinis on Saturday but the pressure got the better of Evans and Ward in the final day's singles.

Great Britain will now face Turkey in the summer to avoid relegation to the lowest tier of the competition while Lithuania have earned a tie with Ireland.

Evans started brightly in front of a passionate Lithuanian crowd and the 19-year-old took the opening set tie-break after saving two set points.

But Evans could not build on his first set lead and although he held on for much of the second set, could not stop Grigelis levelling the match taking the set 7-5 before a complete capitulation in the third set handing it over 6-0.

Evans regained his composure and dug deep in the fourth set to take it into a decider but the Lithuanian, who has never played an ATP Tour match, was buoyed by his home crowd and used them to great effect to come through 6-4 in the fifth.

After losing his opening rubber to Berankis in five sets, Evans now has a Davis Cup record that reads played four, lost four.

Today's humiliating loss follows last year's defeat to Poland to drop into the Europe/Africa Zone group II and is part of an abysmal run of form which has seen Britain lose five consecutive ties under captain John Lloyd.

Eurosport

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