Murray and Salisbury battle to the last but Britain crash out of Davis Cup

Great Britain returned to the familiar surroundings of the Emirates Arena in Glasgow this week with one of the deepest men’s teams in its recent history. Ten years on from a time when Andy Murray was the country’s sole top-200 men’s singles player, they finally had some depth. They have four top-50 singles players now, including the world number eight, and two of the top three doubles players in the world. Expectations were high.

In the end, those expectations were not even close to being met. Great Britain were dumped out of the Davis Cup with a tie to spare despite a courageous fight from Joe Salisbury and Andy Murray, who were defeated 7-6(0), 6-7(6), 6-3 by Wesley Koolhof and Matwé Middelkoop in the deciding doubles rubber, handing the Netherlands a 2-1 victory.

“It just sucks, because these matches have come down to a few points and they’ve not gone our way,” said Murray. “I have been fortunate to play a lot of these matches over the years, and, you know, come through them. You know, that hasn’t happened this time around, and I feel sad about that, because I think we had the possibility to have a really good run here.”

The Great Britain team returned to the Emirates Arena on Friday for their second tie with the pressure high. The Netherlands had already secured a win by defeating Kazakhstan and, after beating Britain on Wednesday, the United States team also defeated Kazakhstan to clinch their second win. The top two teams from the group advance to the knockout stages, meaning Friday’s encounter was a must-win.

Despite the loss to Tommy Paul on Tuesday, Dan Evans left the court feeling like he was playing well. He simply continued on the same path, serving well and attacking his forehand without hesitation despite