Great Britain crash out of ATP Cup despite beating United States

Lucy Roberts
Jamie Murray in action

Great Britain are out of the ATP Cup even though they finished their campaign with a victory in the Group C match against the United States.

Dan Evans did his duties successfully to beat US opponent John Isner 6-4, 7-6(3) on Wednesday to make it 1-0, and although Cameron Norrie failed to defeat Taylor Fritz, losing 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-1, it set up a tense doubles showdown between the two teams who both had a point apiece.

Doubles partnership Evans and Jamie Murray made sure GB were in with a chance of progressing to the semi-finals this weekend as they came from being a set and a break down against their opponents Fritz and Isner to clinch victory 6-7(3), 7-5, 10-8, and ultimately beat the United States 2-1 in a very impressive performance.

“Jamie talked me through the whole match, I don’t call anything, he calls everything, I just go with it,” Evans told the ATP’s website after the win.

“It makes my job a lot easier when I have him everywhere, so I just run around basically and hopefully he mops it up.”

Murray then said: “We were just hustling, we just kept saying, ‘Just try to get the ball back in play, start the point,’ and tried to use our skills after that.

“We played an amazing point to break back at 4-2, got a bit of momentum and plated a great tie-break, which is ultimately what it comes down to so many times.”

However, this didn’t secure the Brits a place in the semi-finals, in order to progress they needed Germany to win in their later tie against Canada as any team in Group C was in with a chance of getting to the next stage before the start of these final ties.

But it wasn’t meant to be – in the singles matches Denis Shapovolov from Canada beat German Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 while world No 3 Alexander Zverev was defeated by 21-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 meaning Canada make it through to the next round.

Canada will play defending champions Russia in the semi-finals this weekend, with Spain and Poland, the only other two teams who progressed from the group stages, also playing each other in the last-four ties.

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