Great to see the local boy see the nation across the finishing line, although it took a very hard fought match (as the scoreline indicates). All credit to Jaziri though - he was even up a break in the deciding set.
Are Great Britian's Davis Cup fortunes slowly reversing? One can hope, but Tunisia with all due respect were not the toughest test. They now need to win their next set of ties in the summer to get back into Group I, which should be achievable.
Agreed. If nothing else they're learning how to win these sorts of tough matches.
When Murray plays it just results in them being overmatched by much better competition and ending up demoralised when the British somehow expect them to win anyway.
Part of the problem is that the British attitude to a lot of these players is that they would be solid top 50 players if only they'd sort themselves out/work harder/stop messing around waiting for LTA handouts etc etc.
Which is bollocks. They're not good enough. Simple.
Yeah, you're right. The current crop simply aren't good enough. Baker is too light-weight; Boggo doesn't have the belief; Ward's game is too simplistic and unreliable.
However, it would benefit us to get back into Group I...there are a number of other squads with similar problems to ours (e.g. Israel, Finland), so with a lucky draw we might actually climb all the way back to World Group qualifying. As it is, the World Group itself has one or two weaker sides.
As I mentioned yesterday, we could really do with a stronger doubles team. The doubles 'specialists' are good players, individually, but lack that particular spark that really sets them apart from anyone else (e.g. scratch pairings of reasonable singles players).
From what I have been reading about Jaziri this weekend, it seems that maybe he could be ranked a little higher. Credit to him for a brilliant fighting performance this weekend, and also to his partner in doubles yesterday (who I read played some good attacking tennis).
Nice that Ward was able to gut the match out, even though on paper he should have won easier. At least he'll get a bit of a confidence boost from this, and hopefully he can channel that into some better results over the next few months.
Luxembourg are up next for us, and that will be a July tie. The LTA won't be able to resist a grass court (Eastbourne) I suppose, despite the fact that Muller would thank us kindly for putting him on one. Muzza will be back in the team, so theoretically the surface wouldn't matter anyway. Besides, him staying on grass after Wimbledon would be better for his knees.
Hopefully we can win again, to reach a promotion play-off in September. Would also be nice for that to be a home tie.
Brazil haven't spent much and have still at least matched what we've done in the Open Era (they've had one world class player, we've had three very good ones and John Lloyd who sucks)
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