The Great Britain players are feeling the Madrid chill this week but their resolve to win the Davis Cup again is underpinned by their long-established bonhomie, and their mischief-making hit a new peak on Tuesday.
Giggling in most of the right places, they answered questions before their opening match against the Netherlands on Wednesday with a selection of barely disguised quotes from the Disney cartoon, Frozen, which riffs on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, an appropriate choice given the falling temperatures.
Andy “Let it go” Murray declared he would find it difficult to get on court five days in a row, according to the new format of the 18-team finals, but would play doubles with his brother, Jamie, if asked, depending on the circumstances. “Playing five days in a row is going to be tough just now,” he said. “I did it in Antwerp [where he won his first tournament in two and a half years after hip surgery in January] and I got through that tournament quite well at the end. But it was tough. I’ve also since then had a bit of a break as well, where I didn’t train and practise as much.”
As one of the game’s senior voices Murray felt compelled to caution the naysayers pouring scorn on the revamped event, which began in front of a sparse gathering at the opening ceremony but has generated some partisan excitement since.
“People have been quite sceptical, which is fine, because it is a big change and I had my reservations about it [too],” he said. “But it’s fair to give the new event a chance to play itself out and see how it is at the end of the week. I don’t know what all the other players have been saying but I think it’s been very well run so far. It’s been very easy for all of the players. The one concern I had, and have, is the atmosphere in the matches in comparison to what we were used to in Davis Cup ties.”
Eighteen nations are split into six groups of three. Group winners and two best-placed runners-up go into the quarter-finals on Thursday and Friday. The final is on Sunday. Each tie, on the hard courts of Caja Mágica in Madrid, comprises two singles and one doubles rubber.
Group A France, Serbia, Japan
Group B Croatia, Spain, Russia
Group C Argentina, Germany, Chile
Group D Belgium, Australia, Colombia
Group E Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Netherlands
Group F USA, Italy, Canada
Schedule
Mon
Croatia v Russia
Italy v Canada
Belgium v Colombia
Tue
Argentina v Chile
France v Japan
Kazakhstan v Netherlands
Spain v Russia
USA v Canada
Australia v Colombia
Wed
Serbia v Japan
Argentina v Germany
Great Britain v Netherlands
Croatia v Spain
USA v Italy
Belgium v Australia
Thu am
France v Serbia
Germany v Chile
Great Britain v Kazakhstan
Thu 5pm/Fri 10am/Fri 5pm
Quarter-finals
Sat 10am/5pm
Semi-finals
Sun 5pm
Final
Kyle Edmund was the last player added to the British squad and he knows it is between him and Dan “Can’t hold it back any more” Evans for the No 1 spot given Murray’s reduced ranking in his comeback year. “We don’t get a day off but hopefully we can get into a nice rhythm and play each day,” Edmund said. “We know what we’re expecting. Of course you have to win the matches in order to play all the way through the event. But we’ve just got to do our best. You know … fear will be our enemy.”
The squad debutant is the doubles specialist, Neal Skupski, who insisted: “Be the player you always have to be.” And, if it comes down to a close call at the weekend, he realises he might miss out if the team captain opts to put the load on the Murray brothers in a late doubles match.
Jamie somehow did not manage to insert his allotted offering – “The cold never bothers me anyway” – but he pointed out how the new format could be crucial in doubles. “In the group stages every rubber counts,” he said, “but obviously in the knockouts, if it’s 2-0 after singles, then the doubles doesn’t get played. But if it’s live, then it’s going to be the match that settles the tie. So I guess it works both ways. Obviously in the previous format it always counted and was always a pivotal rubber in the tie.”
That will have affected Leon Smith’s take on selection and strategy and, frozen out of the Frozen sketch, he said he would delay announcing his singles line-up until Wednesday morning, keeping in mind the schedule, with Kazakhstan the opponents on Thursday and a likely quarter-final on Friday evening against the winners of Group C, which includes Argentina, Chile and Germany.
“I have a pretty good idea,” Smith said of who will play singles on day one, “but we’ve kept it as normal. I’m going to speak to the guys tonight so they can sleep on it and then we go.”
In Great Britain’s Group E on Tuesday, Robin Haase kept the Netherlands in their tie with Kazakhstan by beating Alexander Bublik 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5), after Mikhail Kukushkin, a former top-40 player, beat the world No 200 Botic van de Zandschulp 6-2, 6-2, but in the doubles Bublik and Kukushkin beat Wesley Koolhof and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-4, 7-6 (2).
