Davis Cup - British flops to face Lithuania

Eurosport - Thu, 24 Sep 13:20:00 2009

Great Britain will start their campaign to escape the third tier of world tennis with a Davis Cup away trip to Lithuania next March.

TENNIS Great Britain's Davis Cup captain John Lloyd 2009 - 0

The winners of that tie will then play Turkey or Ireland in the next round.

John Lloyd's team were relegated to Euro/Africa zone group two following their weekend 3-2 loss to Poland in Liverpool.

And he hopes the trip - venue to be confirmed - will give younger players a chance to show their potential - a major hint that world number three Andy Murray will not feature in his plans.

"Playing in group two will give some of our younger players the opportunity to perform on the international stage and gain valuable experience at that level. They will learn to play in that environment and they will learn to win," said Lloyd.

"The team are now looking forward to moving up the groups."

Lithuania's highest ranked player is world number 432 Ricardas Berankis, while their national number two, Laurynas Grigelis, is the world number 642.

In the World Group - Rafael Nadal could potentially play Roger Federer as current holders Spain have been drawn to face Switzerland (see link under picture for more).

More than the Games / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 19 of 19

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  1. cmon switzerland n cmon wawrinka and most of all­ FEDERER

    From wakaumayr, on Sat 10 Oct 5:50PM

  2. It is all good to say GB did not win DC for decades,­ but what we are talking about here is a failure of­ bigger scale. GB surely has been an average team but­ now it is a bad team and it got relegated against­ Poland. Peleaaase. Who's next to lose to?­ Zimbabwe?? This is the coach's problem that his­ players under-perform. And to do ''OK''­ in Davis cup, it is not just about having great­ players. France won it a couple of times with average­ players but the coach knew how to motivate them and­ prepare them to play together. France even beat USA­ with the likes of Agassi, Sampras, etc.. England has­ good enough players not to fall to the low level it is­ in at the moment, what it does not have is a good­ coach.

    From Half A Brain, on Sat 26 Sep 7:37AM

  3. Yep. Why do people always blame the manager? They can­ only do so much....

    From wendy, on Fri 25 Sep 12:30PM

  4. Hi you two - how important really is the Davis Cup? Is­ it something GB could choose not to participate in? (As­ a new follower of tennis I'm trying to grasp the­ importance of it). But if you only have 1 real­ contender then it seems a pointless excercise. A bit­ demoralising for the country, team and players.

    From wendy, on Fri 25 Sep 12:28PM

  5. COOL!

    From Con, on Fri 25 Sep 11:44AM

  6. Yep,i said friend.We do agree some,share some­ views,culture,whatever and after a month of heated­ debate,if we both still alive,we could call eachother­ friends.But that's all,lol

    From coolworld, on Fri 25 Sep 9:28AM

  7. That's COOL! Did you say "Friend"??? Two­ resurrected relationships in one day. I'm a happy­ man and will sleep well tonight!

    From Con, on Thu 24 Sep 9:37PM

  8. Hey CON,i'm not sure,Fergie might lead them to an­ FA cup triumph after all.Man U's record when he­ took charge was near to nothing compared with­ Liverpool's,and look now,lol.
    I'm an Arsenal­ fan but i'm not blind to others's­ greatness.
    But ok,i'm with you being with­ me,lol,friend

    From coolworld, on Thu 24 Sep 3:26PM

  9. Murray has done a commendable job of winning his two­ singles matches. Every country that intends to do well­ in Davis Cup needs a second good player. Serbia has­ them in the form of Tipsarevic and Troicki. Britain­ needs to fast develop a player like that to support­ Murray. If not, at least they Murray brothers can try­ developing into a formidable doubles team. In that­ case, with Murray's two singles win, the­ Murrays' teaming up could increase the chances for­ a win.

    From Sash, on Thu 24 Sep 3:22PM

  10. coolworld, couldn't agree more, yeah you heard­ right....... You can put Alex Ferguson in charge of­ Notts County but that don’t mean they will win the FA­ cup. Not against the likes of Man U, Chelsea,­ Liverpool, Arsenal. The structure of the Davis Cup is­ such that one single great player cannot win the Davis­ Cup for his country, unless of course you are John­ McEnroe who was ranked No1 in both singles and doubles­ and the most gifted player ever. Britain need to take a­ step back before they can go forward, they need more­ young talent coming up through the ranks. The British­ accademies need to have a real good look at their back­ yards. Australia is in the same boat right now. Cyprus­ faces a similar delema, Marcos Baghdatis wins both his­ singles regularly but they always trip on the last­ hurdle. The tennis tide has shifted. It is so easy to­ blame the manager for everything.

    From Con, on Thu 24 Sep 3:00PM

  11. GB hasn't reached the Davis Cup final since­ 1937...Yeah,put all the blame on Lloyd,you british fans­ crack me up.

    From coolworld, on Thu 24 Sep 2:32PM

  12. And the answer is 9 times,but none since 1936,and this­ 73 years of nothing is certainly not Lloyd's doing

    From coolworld, on Thu 24 Sep 2:21PM

  13. I don't think Lloyd is to blame for GB's tennis­ short comings.They obviously don't have the tennis­ academy capabilities of Russia,France or Spain to­ compete at the highest levels,nor at normal level to­ compete against Poland either.
    Let's see,how many­ times has GB won the Davis cup,and how far in it GB­ ever went ? Ever reached the final ? Semis ? Quarters­ maybe ?
    Even if they bring in The Fabio Capello of­ tennis as coach,there's still need for brilliant­ players,Murray can't do everything on his own,he­ wasn't even taught in England,which means how­ desperate England is for tennis schools.

    From coolworld, on Thu 24 Sep 2:14PM

  14. The day John was appointed to take over the DAVIS cup I­ knew it was the beginning and end of British Davis Cup­ tennnis. H e should be relieved of his duty or else­ the situation wll go from worst to who knows. Pls find­ our if Tim Henman is interested.

    Ehimeme

    From graceenahoro, on Thu 24 Sep 11:32AM

  15. Personally, SACK Lloyd, he is living in the PAST, the­ games chnaged, go for a younger set up, Rudedski and­ Henman, although those other british 'men' who­ get 40,000 a year dont have to win games to get it !!!­ shud be 10 grand and the rest paid on RESULTS !
    The­ British womens youngsters ARE better than OUR men !!!

    From scooby_panda, on Wed 23 Sep 10:25PM

  16. embarrassing

    From jay, on Wed 23 Sep 8:03PM

  17. Ironically, the most meaningful comment on this page­ comes from jenny and her PS3 slim. Really folks, who­ cares?

    From LogicSurvives, on Wed 23 Sep 7:07PM

  18. It is a national disgrace that, with the world No. 3­ playing, that we should be relegated to the Euro/Africa­ division 2. Andy Murray is an excellent singles player­ but his doubles play leaves a bit to be desired. ­ Surely Jamie Murray would have done better. It seems­ about time for John Lloyd to resign, if he was a­ football manager he would be gone. Andy Murray should­ stay out of it, until we have a couple of singles­ players who can get us promoted again.

    From jack.mannell, on Wed 23 Sep 2:58PM

  19. Great Britain have finally arrived at their rightful­ level.

    From Nabucodonosor, on Wed 23 Sep 2:35PM
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