The British Davis Cup team is half Scottish – and the semis are in Glasgow. It’s obvious the Brits will have a huge home-court advantage, quite literally, too, as their front man Andy Murray was born and raised in this very city. Adrenaline is guaranteed to flow in buckets during these matches: the Aussies will be fighting for their chance at the trophy after a 12 year wait, and for the Brits, it would mean the end of a 79-year dry spell!
The Brits have a rather disproportionate failure record, considering that there really is no shortage of excellent tennis players – the home grown Murray brothers are respectively 3rd in singles and 8th in doubles world-wise. Australian fans would undoubtedly be excited for the first final in nine years, but it would be sort of a magical moment for their opponents, who haven’t made it to the finals in 37 years – since 1981.
However, the Brits actually are favoured to win. Their victory is set at the odds of 27/20, which is not much better, but still more hopeful than the 11/4 for the Aussies’ triumph. The Murray surname may sound like a menacing threat – but the Australian team have beaten the 2012 and 2013 champions Czech Republic in the very first round.
Australian Bernard Tomic sports three ATP 250 Series singles titles, of which the last two were in 2015 and 2014 respectively, and two ATP Challengers titles. His best Grand Slam result is the Wimbledon quarter-finals of 2011 and he is ranked as world‘s 23rd in singles – the best in his team.
Samuel Groth is the best ranked doubles player in the team – he is world‘s 90th. He has one titles in ATP 250 Series doubles, and has reached the semi-finals in French Open 2014. Groth’s performance in singles is also solid enough – he went through to the 3rd round in both Australian Open and Wimbledon this year.
The team’s youngest Thanasi Kokkinakis has two doubles titles from the ATP Challenger Tour, achieved in 2014 and 2013, although he is better ranked at singles. Lleyton Hewitt, the world’s former no. 1, has the most achievements to his name, however, it’s been 10 years since he has been a runner-up in Australian Open which is his last best result.
Over at the Brits team, a lot of attention will quite obviously go to the Murray duo. Andy quite infamously lost at the fourth round of the US Open this year after reaching finals in Australian Open and quarter-finals in French Open and Wimbledon.
Still, he is the not-so-secret weapon that the Brits will definitely use in order to win the singles. He’s also played the doubles with his brother in the previous Davis Cups – and rather successfully, too, although it’s doubtful that he would play this year, as it will be on Saturday and the singles will be played on Friday and Sunday.
Jamie Murray is the highest-ranked doubles player on the team and has had a very good season – while he started out with the 3rd round in both Australian and French Open, he made it to the finals in the other two Grand Slam tournaments along with his Australian doubles partner John Peers. If it comes to the doubles being the tie-breaking match as no-one from the opposing team can quite match his little brother, Jamie can definitely put up a very good fight for it.
Kyle Edmund and Dominic Inglot complete the team, with the team’s youngest player Kyle winning two ATP Challenger Tours this year and Dominic having had better luck at doubles – going through to the semi-finals in US Open and winning an ATP 250 Series tournament. Even though the Murray brothers may gather more attention, these two are no rookies.
The Australian team coupled youth with experience, meanwhile the Brits will lean on their tennis star brothers. It would be a very important win for either of the teams – even if they don’t end up winning the whole tournament, it’s literally been years since a successful Davis Cup for both sides. The matches will be played during a three day course from September 18th – tune in to see a drought ending in a triumph!