Great Britain suffer Davis Cup defeat
Great Britain will need Andy Murray in future ties
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Saturday, 07, Mar 2009 05:38
Great Britain have fallen further into Davis Cup oblivion with a disheartening defeat at the hands of the Ukraine in the Euro/Africa Zone Group One tie.
Ross Hutchins and Colin Fleming fought bravely in the doubles, but narrowly lost a marathon match 4-6 6-3 3-6 7-5 4-6 loss to Sergei Bubka and Sergiy Stakhovsky.
The damage in truth had already been done yesterday when Jason Goodall and Chris Eaton lost the singles matches to leave Great Britain trailing 2-0.
It looked as if it would be an easy win over Ukraine as they comfortably took the first set of the doubles match with a single break in the fifth game. But the courageous duo of Hutchins and Fleming showed some pride and fought back well.
The British duo managed to get to 4-3 on serve in the second set and were then gifted a break of serve. First Bubka put a simple smash into the net and then Stakhovsky double-faulted to give Great Britain a 5-3 lead. Fleming then served out to take the second set.
It again just took one break to win the third set, but this time it was Ukraine who broke Fleming in the sixth game to take the third set 6-3. The fourth set was the closest and it looked to be heading for a tie-break, but the Ukrainian number one Stakhovsky had poor service game and Great Britain broke to take the set.
The Glasgow crowd were now in buoyant mood and roared on Great Britain. They started the decider well as Fleming comfortably held on to their serve. But Hutchins was unable to hold on to his serve and gave Ukraine a decisive break as they went on to take the set and tie.
The two reverse singles matches are now dead rubbers and captain John Lloyd has now got to go back to the drawing board and hope Andy Murray decides to give more importance to the Davis Cup.