Britain’s Cameron Norrie in action during his match against France’s Arthur Rinderknech at Olympiahalle, Innsbruck November 27, 2021. — Reuters pic
INNSBRUCK, Nov 28 — Britain beat France 2-1 in their opening Davis Cup tie in Innsbruck to move top of their group after Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie won their singles rubbers in straight sets on Saturday.
Evans beat Adrian Mannarino 7-5 6-4 in a little under two hours to give Britain the lead, firing 14 winners and converting three break points as the Frenchman made 22 unforced errors.
Norrie defeated Arthur Rinderknech 6-2 7-6(8), clinching victory on his second match point in an absorbing tiebreak in which the Briton fought back from 4-1 down.
“It was a difficult match especially with a lot on the line. He came up with some great volleys on the tiebreak there. The team behind me were great, especially with no fans here, it wasn’t easy,” Norrie told Eurosport.
“It was a tough game early on and I found a lot of confidence — he went through a little patch where he missed a lot and I took advantage of that. All credit to the guy to make it to the tiebreak and I was fortunate to sneak through there.”
Eighteen teams are competing in six round-robin groups, played across three cities, for places in the Davis Cup quarter-finals.
The ties in Innsbruck are being played behind closed doors due to Austria’s reintroduction of a Covid-19 lockdown.
Rinderknech had no time to rest after he was named as a late replacement for Pierre-Hugues Herbert as Nicolas Mahut’s doubles partner and he got his revenge when they beat Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski 6-1 6-4.
The doubles victory gives France the opportunity to finish as one of best second-placed teams if Britain beat the Czech Republic on Sunday.
Australia on the brink
Australia, 28-times champions, beat Hungary 2-1 in Turin but are on the brink of elimination after finishing their group campaign with a 2-4 win-loss record.
Having lost 3-0 to Croatia, Australia went 1-0 down when Zsombor Piros claimed the biggest win of his career by beating John Millman 4-6 6-4 6-3.
Piros is ranked 282nd in the world — 210 places below Millman — but that did not deter the 22-year-old Hungarian who broke serve 11 times.
Australia finally claimed their first victory of the tournament when Alex de Minaur came through a three-hour match to beat Marton Fucsovics 7-5 2-6 7-6(2) and level the tie at 1-1.
The doubles pairing of Alex Bolt and John Peers then sealed the tie when they beat the Hungarian duo 6-3 6-7(11) 6-3. Hungary face Croatia on Sunday.
In Madrid, Kazakhstan beat Sweden 2-1 with their doubles pairing of Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov sealing victory after Swede Elias Ymer and Kazakh Alexander Bublik won their singles rubbers.
Sweden remain top of the group, having beaten Canada 3-0. Kazakhstan face Canada on Sunday.
The group winners and two best runners-up qualify for the quarter-finals. — Reuters