After losing to Lithuania the Great British Davis Cup team were one game away to being relegated to the bottom league of European Davis Cup. Although Andy Murray made it to the Semi-Finals of Wimbledon before losing to Rafael Nadal, Great British tennis is in a worse state than most of the other national sports teams and relegation would have been the ultimate embarrassment for the creators of Tennis.
The stage was set in Eastbourne and yesterday was day 1 of 3 for the weekend tie against Turkey. All ties are played best out 5 rubbers that includes four singles matches and and a doubles match. Day 1 started with Jamie Baker against Ergun Zorlu, it was a comprehensive straight sets victory for Baker with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 finish. The second singles match was between James Ward and Marsel Ilhan, Ward knew that if he won Great Britain would be in good stead to stay in the Europe/Africa Group II with Turkey dropping to Africa Group III. Ilhan looked a lot better than Zorlu and put up a better fight but Ward still managed to win by 6-2, 7-5, 6-7, 6-1. This left day 1 with Great Britain 2-0 ahead knowing that if they won the doubles today they would win the tie. Up stepped the duo of Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski as they faced off against Halok Akuyyon and Zorlu. Again it was a harder fought contest which was to the surprise of the British fans but the Brit pairing came through with a straight sets 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory to guarantee the British win ahead of tomorrow's final two singles matches.
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