Team GB booked their place in the Davis Cup quarter-finals thanks to Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski’s straight-sets win over Czech pair Jiri Vesely and Tomas Machac.
A shock defeat for Dan Evans to world No 143 Machac in the morning had threatened to derail GB’s bid for the last eight but Cameron Norrie shook off a second-set blip against Jiri Lehecka to level up the tie.
His second victory of the weekend meant Salisbury and Skupski, who were beaten by the French pair on Saturday, were able to seal the team’s place in Tuesday’s quarter-finals.
They are expected to face Germany, who are without their No 1 player Alexander Zverev, assuming Jan-Lennard Struff and co are able see off Austria.
GB 2-1 Czech Republic
- Tomas Machac beats Dan Evans 6-2 7-5
- Cameron Norrie beats Jiri Lehecka 6-1 2-6 6-1
- Joe Salisbury/Neal Skupski beat Tomas Machac/Jiri Vesely 6-4 6-2
After the best season of his career, Norrie led the fightback for the British team by picking up his opening set against Lehecka in just 30 minutes without giving his opponent a single break-point opportunity.
However, an error-strewn second set in which Lehecka lost only four points in total on his own serve saw the world No 138 level the rubber, with Norrie even forced to save set points for what would have been a third break of serve in the set.
The 26-year-old rallied though, roared on by an effusive GB bench, and broke Lehecka in his first service game, winning all but one game of the decider and serving it out to love.
Fresh from a disappointing defeat in a dead rubber to France, Salisbury and Skupski followed him eager to make up for the loss and made short work of the Czech pair, even after they subbed in Machac on the basis of his impressive singles victory.
The British pair were unbroken throughout and produced an impressive 36 winners; in the team box, Evans was the loudest of the lot, no doubt glad his team-mates had dug him out of a hole.
Earlier, the British No 2 had lost seven of the first nine games and was broken three times, but found his best form in the second set and served to level up the match.
However, his serve faltered at the wrong moment allowing Machac to draw back level and break again before closing the match out 6-2 7-5.
Evans was served notice of a difficult match on his hands in the very first game when he twice saw Machac hit a passing shot past him, one on each wing.
He managed to hold but two games later could not hold off the 21-year-old, dumping a forehand into the net under pressure from Machac’s baseline game.
The Czech No 4 had beaten Richard Gasquet in straight sets on Thursday and the confidence from that match was clearly coarsing through his veins; he did not lose a single point on first serve in the opening set and did break Evans again at 2-4, eventually taking the first in just 35 minutes.
The second was a far more competitve affair, although when Evans ended the first game of it with his serve and his racket broken, it felt like it might all be slipping away from him.
The Solihull native is nothing if not a fighter though, and scrapped hard to break back immediately, the first of four games in a row as the quality that has propelled him inside the top 30 in the world started to show. His slice backhand began to trouble Machac’s previously flawless groundstrokes and his first serve percentage went back in the right direction.
However, he produced an ugly game at 5-3, serving for the second set but firing two consecutive forehands out and then a third into the net to gift Machac the break back, a momentum shift from which the Brit could not recover.
Team GB
Players (captain: Leon Smith)
- Cameron Norrie (singles ranking: 12)
- Dan Evans (singles ranking: 25)
- Liam Broady (singles ranking: 128, doubles ranking: 243)
- Joe Salisbury (doubles ranking: 3)
- Neal Skupski (doubles ranking: 20)
Fixtures
- GB beat France 2-1 on Saturday 27 November
- GB beat Czech Republic 2-1 on Sunday 28 November
Projected draw
- Quarter-final vs Germany, Tuesday 30 November, 3pm UK time
- Semi-final vs Russia, Saturday 4 December, midday UK time
- Final vs Italy, Sunday 5 December, 3pm UK time
How to watch
- TV: All Team GB matches will be live for subscribers on Eurosport 1 (Sky channel 410, BT 412, Virgin 521), with other matches also available on Eurosport 2 (Sky 411, BT 413, Virgin 522)
- Live stream: The Davis Cup Finals in its entirety will be available to watch in the UK via the Eurosport Player, available for an online only subscription fee of £6.99 a month as part of a discovery+ “Sport & Entertainment” package
