Saturday, 4 February 2023

Norrie Sends Great Britain Through To Davis Cup Finals Group Stage

Cameron Norrie completed a Davis Cup double on Saturday to clinch victory for Great Britain against Colombia in a 2023 Qualifier.

After scoring the visitors' first point with a win against Nicolas Barrientos on Friday, the World No. 11 earned his team a decisive third point with 6-4, 6-4 victory against Nicolas Mejia on Day 2 of the tie. In Saturday's opening match in Cota, the doubles duo of Daniel Evans and Neal Skupski gave Great Britain a 2-1 lead with a 6-4, 6-4 result against Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.

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"Feelings are one of immense pride for what the boys have done, and the support team," said British captain Leon Smith. "Everyone's committed a lot of time to this, but hats off to the players. They came down to Colombia, most straight from Melbourne, came earlier than we'd ever normally do for Davis Cup, which is a big commitment from them. But we did that to prepare best for what happened these past two days and it's definitely paid off.

"There's a lot of work that the players have done to be able to adapt in a short space of time, and they went out and they fought really hard... It needed a lot of grit and determination. The important thing is we got a win, which gives us a chance to keep being successful this year. Really looking forward to September now."

Norrie finished the job with a battling victory against Mejia, who scored his first Top 100 win against Daniel Evans in the tie's first rubber. The match sparked into life late in the opening set with three straight breaks of serve, the Briton claiming two of them to lead 5-4. 

The 27-year-old drove home his advantage by serving out the set to love, a feat he repeated when serving out the match behind the lone break in set two. Norrie saved four of five break points in the match, aided by a 67 per cent first-serve percentage and a 83 per cent win rate on first-serve points.

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Evans/Skupski did not face a break point in their victory against longtime partners Cabal/Farah, who have won 19 tour-level titles as a pair. The Britons claimed an instant break in sets one and two, advantages they saw home with relative ease until the final game of both sets.

Pushed to deuce in their final service game of each set, Evans/Skupski denied their opponents — and the Colombian crowd — a lifeline as they stood tall in the crucial late moments.

"It was a very good performance by me and Evo today," said Skupski. "I thought we stayed calm in big situations today and we stuck together, always communicating, always trying to feed off each other... We tried to use the bench as much as possible. We have a great team and a great environment from the coaching staff and also through the players."

"We had good energy. We are good friends," added Evans, who bounced back after his loss to Mejia. "He is No. 1 [in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings] and took care of the rest."

With victory in the tie, Great Britain booked its place as one of 16 teams in the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals by Rakuten, to be played in September after the US Open. Other teams already confirmed for the group stage include 2022 champions Canada, 2022 finalists Australia, wild cards Spain and Italy, and qualifiers France, the United States, Switzerland, Serbia and Sweden.

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