Davis Cup: GB's Jamie Murray and Dom Inglot win to earn 2-1 lead over Serbia

Jamie Murray and Dom Inglot won their doubles rubber to give Great Britain a 2-1 lead over Serbia in their Davis Cup quarter-final in Belgrade.

The Britons beat Filip Krajinovic and Nenad Zimonjic 6-1 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 6-4.

Earlier, James Ward lost 6-1 6-3 6-2 against Dusan Lajovic in their singles match, which was delayed from Friday.

Kyle Edmund, who won his singles match on Friday, can seal victory for Great Britain when he faces Lajovic on Sunday at 14:00 BST.

Britain are aiming to become the sixth team to defend the Davis Cup title, after they won it in Belgium last year.

Murray was partnering Inglot after his brother Andy, with whom he has won all five of his previous Davis Cup doubles matches, decided to sit out the tie.

The British pair started strongly and raced into an early lead against their Serb opponents, who were playing together for the first time.

Despite the Britons having chances to break in the second set, the Serbs improved to level, but Inglot and Murray recovered to put their team within one rubber of the semi-finals.

Inglot, who sealed his first Davis Cup win with the victory after serving out the third and fourth sets, said: “It is great to feel like I have finally put a rubber in for the team.

“Serving out was a little nerve-wracking but with Jamie at the net you know he will help you out. He deserves a lot of credit.”

Murray added: “It was unfortunate we lost the second set but we kept getting the ball back on return and then the breaks of serve helped us.

“We’re really happy to have that win going into Sunday.”

Team captain Leon Smith picked out the Inglot serve as a key in the match.

“It’s great for Dom to have his first Davis Cup victory,” Smith added. “Jamie is really experienced now and it’s great that we can rely on him to come out and do what he does.”

Ward outclassed by Lajovic

Ward was a late inclusion in the British squad after replacing Andy Murray but he lost in one hour and 52 minutes against a player ranked 159 places above him, at 81st in the world.

The 29-year-old, whose ranking has dropped after he was inside the world’s top 100 this time last year, was broken in the first game of the match and struggled throughout against the highest-ranked player in Serbia’s squad.

In a match postponed on Friday – and again delayed on Saturday because of rain – Ward made 73 errors and hit just 12 winners compared to Lajovic’s 23.

Ward said: “It’s one of the heaviest clay courts I’ve ever played on.

“It definitely doesn’t suit my game. But he was very good today. The tactics we had set up were pretty much completely opposite to everything he did in the first set, which is credit to him.”

Inspired to play tennis?

Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide.

Analysis

Former Great Britain Davis Cup captain John Lloyd:

Murray and Inglot just started to combine well. Inglot wasn’t returning that well but they came together when it mattered. They didn’t play great, it wasn’t spectacular, but they got the job done.

It looked like a regulation doubles win (during the second set). They should have been up 2-0 and then it was getting a bit dodgy and I was getting a bit nervous. The class came through at the end and that is what good pairs do.

Even if James Ward had played at his best, he would have struggled in his match – but you could see he just didn’t have confidence.

He made so many unforced errors. You could see he wasn’t sure what to do on the court. He was outclassed.

Quarter-final round-up

Victory for Great Britain would see them face Argentina or Italy in the semi-final.

Argentina lead 2-1 after the second day in Pesaro, Italy, thanks to a five-set victory for Juan Martin Del Potro and Guido Pella over Fabio Fognini and Paolo Lorenzi.

Elsewhere, France – featuring Wimbledon doubles champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, as well as singles quarter-finalists Lucas Pouille and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga – lead the Czech Republic 2-1.

The United States lead Croatia 2-0 after Jack Sock came from two sets behind to beat Marin Cilic in their singles match, with the doubles to be played later on Saturday.

You can now add tennis alerts in the BBC Sport app – simply head to the menu and My Alerts section

Source link