Davis Cup: Great Britain travel to Colombia for 'most complicated tie'

GB captain Leon Smith (left) has the strongest team on paper in terms of rankings but Colombia have the advantage of conditions they know well

It is, according to captain Leon Smith, "without doubt the most complicated tie we could have got".

Great Britain's Davis Cup Finals qualifying tie against Colombia this week will be played away from home and on clay.

And - most dauntingly of all - with pressureless balls and at an altitude of 2,566m near Bogota.

"I went to Guadalajara [once], and I was rubbish," British number two Dan Evans says of losing in the first round of qualifying at a 2012 ATP Challenger event in Mexico at an altitude of 1,566m.

"So I asked somebody, is that similar? And they were like, 'no, that's hardly anything compared to [Bogota]'. So, God knows. It's an experience, I guess."

But Evans and the four other players initially named in the team have all committed to play. For most, it involved an arduous journey across the International Date Line from Melbourne once their involvement in the Australian Open had come to an end.

Doubles world number one Neal Skupski flew to Bogota via Los Angeles and Miami (a 28-and-a-half-hour trip) - but would probably not have made the journey had he won either his men's doubles quarter-final or mixed doubles semi-final last Wednesday.

"The most obvious hurdle is the altitude," Smith explained during BBC Sounds' coverage of the Australian Open.

"The altitude brings pressureless balls [that should be easier to control], which our players never play with. The ball is flying so much faster through the air so you have the need to adapt.

"Then you have the physiological elements as well, so it's how people are going to react to the thinner air."

With Cameron Norrie, Jack Draper and Joe Salisbury completing the team, GB are the stronger side for the tie at Pueblo Viejo Country Club in Cota, just north of Bogota. All the singles players are in the world's top 40 and the doubles players are ranked first and fourth.

Colombia have only one singles player in the top 250 - number 81 Daniel Elahi Galan. But they do have the former world number one doubles partnership of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, and the significant advantage of conditions in which they feel totally at home.

The usually strong GB team spirit has also been strained by recent disappointments and Evans' public frustration that he should be playing doubles as well as singles.

"To be frank, it's a bit insulting that I haven't been picked ever to play the Davis Cup [in doubles]," he told the i newspaper last October.

That followed two doubles defeats for Joe Salisbury and Andy Murray as Great Britain were knocked out of the 2022 Finals during September's group stage in Glasgow.

The previous November, Salisbury and Neal Skupski had lost the deciding doubles rubber of the quarter-final against Germany in Innsbruck.

Evans is a very fine doubles player, and teamed up with Skupski to great effect in 2021 when they reached the final of the Masters Series events in Miami and Monte Carlo.

But his comments did not go down well with some of the players, who felt that if he had something to say, he should at least have kept it in house.

"I don't ever question Dan's passion for playing. He wants to win. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we don't. What's happened has happened," was Smith's response when asked about it on air during the Australian Open.

"But we're fine, me and Dan are fine," he continued.

"We've spent time here and we're travelling together. I just want a good team spirit.

"We also want a team of winners, though. I don't mind passion and people knocking on my door and saying 'you got that wrong' - that's fine, that just goes with it. I'm literally thick-skinned enough to deal with this stuff."

Smith has proved himself an outstanding motivator and man manager in nearly 13 years as Davis Cup captain.

Those skills will need to come to the fore once again in this very challenging tie, which comes - for most - at the end of a long spell away from home.

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