Evans secures decisive singles win to help Great Britain to 2-0 victory over Germany in Madrid on Friday evening sending them through to semi-finals for third time in five years
Dan Evans and Kyle Edmund secured huge singles wins to send Great Britain into the Davis Cup semi-finals where they will face hosts Spain at Madrid’s Caja Magica.
Edmund gave Britain the perfect start with a 6-3 7-5 victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber, producing another superb performance after Thursday’s victory over Mikhail Kukushkin.
That set the stage for British No 1 Evans, who kept his place ahead of Andy Murray, despite his losses to lower-ranked players this week, but he produced a magnificent performance to defeat German No 1 Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6 (8-6) 3-6 7-6 (6-2). The only disappointment was the size of the crowd, which appeared noticeably smaller than for Britain’s two group matches.
The British fans who had stayed made a good noise, though, and Edmund said: “It feels like a home tie playing in Madrid. We really appreciate the efforts to come out here.”
Evans’ place had been in question but Leon Smith stuck with him ahead of Andy Murray, who was again left out of the side, cheering on from the sidelines, and the captain was rewarded with a display of real skill and heart from the 29-year-old.
He dominated the deciding tie-break and, when Struff’s final shot flew wide, Evans leapt high and threw his racket into the air before running to celebrate with Smith and the rest of the team.
It looked like it might again slip away from Evans when world No 35 Struff battled back after losing the first set, but Evans withstood pressure at the start of the third and dominated the deciding tie-break.
When Struff’s final shot flew wide, Evans leapt high and threw his racket into the air before running to celebrate with captain Smith and the rest of the team.
The 2015 champions will face host nation Spain on Saturday evening.
This victory, though, means they are guaranteed to be back in Madrid next year, with semi-finalists exempted from March’s play-off round.
Source: SkySports