Davis Cup 2023: Jack Draper and Dan Evans get Great Britain off to winning start against Australia in Manchester
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Updated 13/09/2023 at 20:35 GMT
Jack Draper and Dan Evans were the heroes for Great Britain on home soil as they defeated Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur respectively in the Davis Cup. Victories in both singles rubbers gave the Brits an unassailable 2-0 lead in the round-robin tie, before Evans and Neal Skupski lost in the doubles. Britain will face France and Switzerland next in their bid to reach the knockout stage.
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Great Britain’s Davis Cup campaign got off to a strong start as Jack Draper and Dan Evans both won singles rubbers in a 2-1 victory over Australia in Group B.
The win was guaranteed before the doubles rubber at Manchester’s AO Arena, as Draper and Evans overcame Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur respectively in three sets for an unassailable 2-0 lead.
Australia avoided a whitewash as Max Purcell and Matthew Ebden beat Evans and Neal Skupski 7-6(5) 6-4 in the doubles.
Britain will now face France and Switzerland in their bid to reach November’s knockout stages in Spain.
France opened their campaign strongly on Tuesday, beating the Swiss 3-0 thanks to Adrian Mannarino and Ugo Humbert in the singles, and Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the doubles.
The top two teams from each group will progress to the finals.
Great Britain have failed to make it past the round-robin stage in their last two outings and last won the Davis Cup in 2015.
Captain Leon Smith picked debutant Draper and the experienced Evans as the two singles players to face Australia ahead of Cameron Norrie and Andy Murray.
Things got off to a nervy start when Draper, fresh off his charge to the US Open fourth round, dropped the opening set of his clash with Kokkinakis in a tie-break.
However, the 21-year-old recovered in a confident second set as he broke twice, before fighting back from 4-2 down in a decisive third-set tie-break to win 6-7(6) 6-3 7-6(4).
Next up, Evans faced a tricky challenge against world No. 11 De Minaur, but dropped just one game in a dominant opening set.
The Australian levelled things up to force a decider, but Evans dusted himself down and took the third set to close out the match 6-1 2-6 6-4 in two hours and 10 minutes.
“I was incredibly nervous walking out, practising here, and it's a lot bigger than I expected and very much closer to the court than we've played before,” Evans said on court.
"I knew the tie was not over if I lost and Jack [Draper] played an amazing match and got us off to an amazing start and that made my job easier. He came out and got us a win and he has been amazing."
Evans was then straight back in action, teaming up with Skupski in the doubles against the Aussie pairing of Purcell and Ebden.
They were unable to complete a perfect night for the Brits as they fell to defeat in two sets.
Great Britain next play Switzerland on Friday, while France take on Australia on Thursday.
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