Davis Cup - Austria relegate Great Britain

Eurosport - Mon, 22 Sep 16:15:00 2008

Alexander Peya beat Alex Bogdanovic 2-6 6-4 6-4 6-2 to give Austria a 3-2 Davis Cup play-off win over Great Britain at Wimbledon.

TENNIS Alexander Peya of Austria plays a return to Alex Bogdanovic of Britain during their Davis Cup World Group play-off tennis match at Wimbledon - 0

The victory keeps Austria in the tournament's elite world group and relegated John Lloyd's team to group one of the Euro/African zone.

At times Bogdanovic played some brilliant tennis. But in keeping with his career to-date the Belgrade-born Londoner became frustratingly inconsistent after a promising start.

Bogdanovic, 24, was impressive in winning the first set but then threw away four break points in the second, lost the third after some unforced errors and, apart from one excellent game in which he broke Peya, barely figured in the fourth and final set.

Peya grew in confidence as the match progressed, while his British opponent - ranked two places above him at 162 - faded badly.

Earlier, Andy Murray beat Austria's top-ranked player Juergen Melzer 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-1 to level the tie and force the deciding rubber.

Murray's match with Melzer was always going to be a grudge contest with Melzer having attempted to start a war of words in the build up.

The pair also played out an epic encounter at the US Open recently when Murray came from two sets down to win in five.

The match was similarly close for most of the afternoon, with Murray having to save six break points in the early stages of the first set before forcing a break and going on to win the set.

Murray also went a break up in the second set and looked in control, only for Melzer to produce a quality spell as he fought back from 4-2 down to win the set 7-5.

The first two games of the next set both went against serve. But Melzer, who had played doubles the day before, gradually began to tire and Murray took full advantage.

The Scot broke in game seven of the fourth set which set him up for a 2-1 lead, and in the fourth set he was completely dominant as Melzer tired badly.

Seán Fay & Reda Maher / Eurosport

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  1. Good riddance of bad rubbish. Murray deserved it. In­ all his matches he works up the crowd in a frenzy and­ psychologically demotivates the opponent like how he­ won the infamous match cheaply against Gasquet.
    A very­ bad player with pathetic sportsmanship and very boorish­ on court behaviour. He deserved the loss.He needs to­ improve as a sportsman first.
    He talks as though he is­ the only player who played the davis cup matches well.­ No one playes a davis cup match to lose. To be fair to­ the other guys who played and lost Murrays smug and­ cheap comments will not help matters in any way.
    His­ arroagnce is still undiluted after multiple­ defeats.
    And if Murray is the only hope of british­ tennis then god save not just the queen but also­ british tennis which is equally senile and defunct.

    From aaditya, on Tue 23 Sep 7:47AM

  2. Alex needs to master the continental grip.

    From frogprince08, on Mon 22 Sep 9:38PM

  3. Absolute joke of a surface.Too green and damp,making­ the ball skid through too low.This meant no rallies and­ little control.Add onto it the slippery parts and it­ serves us right.We lost on grass to Eucador a few years­ ago,and one of the lenpetti brothers had never before­ played on grass,yet still won.We need to play DC on­ hardcourts to attract postive strokeplay.Murray won,but­ what a negative display by him

    From NW36HS, on Mon 22 Sep 7:08PM

  4. JOHN LLOYD SHOULD OF PLAYED MURRAY IN THE DOUBLES THEN­ THINGS WOULD OF BEEN DIFFERENT. COME BACK TIM AND­ GREG.
    ALISON MERRITT.

    From AJ, on Mon 22 Sep 6:27PM

  5. joestone99uk - erse

    From budgie66, on Mon 22 Sep 2:33PM

  6. joestone i'm from chicago and i'm telling you­ to shut up. idiotic comments like yours is what makes­ the rest of the world think we are boastful classless­ fools.

    From football4life, on Mon 22 Sep 1:00PM

  7. Because he was finishing his Murraymint, the too good­ to huury mint!

    From Viva Espana, on Mon 22 Sep 9:20AM

  8. why did Murray not played the doubles? jacob

    From jacob, on Mon 22 Sep 8:22AM

  9. Andy must feel very very disappointed.......

    From toriq, on Mon 22 Sep 5:59AM

  10. I enjoyed the irony of the sentence "Some well­ uneducated comments here."

    From chrishorne99, on Mon 22 Sep 1:15AM

  11. Oh for goodnesss sake leave Andy Murray out of it - he­ did his stuff and won easily both matches- enough said­ - his older brother is pants - everyone talks about him­ like he was a freaking doubles expert - he's only­ ranked 33rd in doubles !! he can only win when playing­ with a woman - as for Bogdanovic - please ! get rid of­ him - he's absolutley useless and talentless - 8­ wimbledon matches 8 losses 6 davis cup matches 6 losses­ - give someone else a chance no matter how lowly ranked­ they are they can't be worse than that loser.

    From michael b, on Mon 22 Sep 12:16AM

  12. SCOTLAND CAN ONLY RISE UP WHEN THEY LIVE IN SCOTLAND­ AND NOT LONDON

    From A S 911, on Mon 22 Sep 12:08AM

  13. at least if there was independence that would help­ Scotland considering the two best british males(murray­ & murray) are from Scotland so we could have a­ chance of playing in the top group of davis cup. at­ least in the euro/africa matches somebody else might be­ able to win and not leave it all to Andy Murray.

    From True_blue82, on Sun 21 Sep 11:09PM

  14. Some well uneducated comments here.However GB can slug­ it out with the likes of Zimbabwe now in the­ Euro/Africa group.Maybe old Bob the Farmer may just­ turn up for your match in Harare.And Murray may get to­ shake his hand.

    From kenneth, on Sun 21 Sep 10:39PM

  15. A rather predictable result I am afraid and if you read­ the right sports papers you would have considered a bet­ on Austria. Not very patriotic I agree but sensible­ nevertheless.I can see what people are getting at with­ the Murray thing but it is a bit boring now, very much­ like him, but he is playing well and might win­ something before he retires. What is far more worrying­ is that we just cannot seem to find any decent players­ to bring through the ranks and I still hold the belief­ that it is the money/class thing. There must be many­ youngsters in this country who would have been able to­ compete with the likes of Timmy if they had an equal­ opportunity, which frankly they do not get. Henman was­ not hungry as he had a square meal every day. Tennis is­ an enjoyable game, apart from the fact that you have no­ ballboys in the park.

    From taff, on Sun 21 Sep 8:09PM

  16. How long as "da" been a definite­ article??????????????????????????

    From Viva Espana, on Sun 21 Sep 6:29PM

  17. If we is relegated how long will it take till we is­ able to be in da world group

    From Fahd, on Sun 21 Sep 6:14PM

  18. Apologies, however Austria beat Great Britain in­ Setember 2004 in a similar World Group match. Clifford­ C.

    From NT 1940 supporter, on Sun 21 Sep 6:05PM

  19. To the yankie dud, scotch is what a scotsman drinks,­ its not a nationality. And presumably if you want the­ scottish to rise up and throw out the english like you­ did, they should get the spanish and french to help­ them like you did.

    From JOHNNY, on Sun 21 Sep 5:47PM

  20. If you lot are going to post comments, try Googling­ first and at least take the trouble to learn the­ difference between England, Great Britain and for that­ matter the UK. Andy is Scottish by birth and therefore­ hold British citizenship.

    From EdwinaM, on Sun 21 Sep 5:43PM
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