Leon Smith: 'Andy Murray wants to play Davis Cup Finals if he feels ready'
Back in 2010, Leon Smith became the leader of the British Davis Cup squad, leading his team towards a 5-0 victory over Turkey in Eastbourne and starting an epic journey that completely transformed the nation that played for the first Davis Cup trophy back in 1900. From Group II, Great Britain had won 11 of the next 13 Davis Cup ties to write history books, clinching the first title since 1936 in 2015 after beating Belgium in the final. To promote tennis in Scotland and give the crowd a chance to watch their heroes Andy and Jamie Murray in action, a few Davis Cup ties in the last couple of years were held in Glasgow and it is only a part of the plan to bring the level of tennis in this country to a higher level. With the new system with Davis Cup Qualifiers and Davis Cup Finals, it is not easy to secure a home Davis Cup tie and the British fans will have to travel to Madrid between November 18-24 and support their country in Group E against Kazakhstan and the Netherlands.
Of course, the main question lingers upon Andy Murray and his participation in Madrid, working hard on his comeback trail and trying to regain form and confidence in the next couple of weeks after starting competing again in June following that severe hip injury that required two surgeries. Andy is currently in Zhuhai and will spend a couple of weeks in China before returning to Europe where he secured more invitations, seeking matches that would help him to raise the level and start competing for titles again in 2020. At the moment, Andy is ready to compete at the Davis Cup Finals in doubles if Leon Smith chooses him but the captain is confident in Murray's singles abilities, keeping the spot in the team open for him and monitoring his results in the upcoming events closely. Andy had not played for his country since World Group semi-final in 2016 when they lost 3-2 against Argentina.
"As Andy has said publicly, we have had positive conversations," said Smith. "He is keen to be part of the team at the Davis Cup Finals and the important thing from his point of view is that he concentrates on the Asia swing where he has three events, plus two back in Europe. Everyone thinks about Andy in the doubles and that is right at the moment, although I hope he will start to build up the bank of singles matches and maybe consider playing singles in Madrid as well. Andy is someone who thrives under pressure and enjoys the team element but whether it is Davis Cup or the ATP cup event, it has always been about what is best for the team and I think that is a really good quality he has.
That means he wants to play but if someone else deserves to play over him, that is what is best for the team. It is great we have four, five, six weeks of tournaments to play before picking the team, you can take five players but you obviously only do that mainly for back up because a lot of teams will only use two players. There is on-court coaching at the ATP Cup but I don't have any involvement at the moment. I am maybe one of the options but it is not as straightforward as that, so we will wait and see in the next few weeks."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2mfdw7L
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