Leon Smith hints Andy Murray may miss out for Great Britain in Davis Cup

In the many years that Leon Smith has brought the disparate bits and pieces of British tennis together in a Davis Cup team capable of great things, Andy Murray has been the unchallenged centrepiece of the captain’s strategy. That might not be the case here this week.

Smith said on Monday as he prepared for the first match in the revamped 18-team “World Cup Of Tennis” – on Wednesday against the Netherlands, on the smaller Court 3, curiously – the three-slam champion will be in the selection mix alongside Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans.

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“Between the three of them it’s a conversation,” is Smith’s mildly surprising take on it. “It’s not between two people. It’s between three people who can all go out and do a job.

“They’ve all been playing very well in practice. The courts are quite quick at altitude and the ball’s moving quickly through the air. For different reasons, it suits our players well. So, it’s quite an open book for who is going to play on each different day.”

He added: “Any time you can bring Andy into the team is going to make your team better. He’s still working his way back to the level he wants to get to, so people have to keep the expectations of the right level of where he’s at just now. He’s making brilliant strides.

“What he did in Antwerp [where he won his first tournament in nearly two and a half years] was much talked about and a brilliant step forwards, but you do have to remember this is early days in him coming back.

“We’ve got really good options. With Andy, with Evo, with Kyle, guys playing a very similar level – and with Jamie [Murray] and Neal [Skupski] we’ve got strong doubles options.

“Equally, the singles guys can play doubles and that’s what you’re going to need with this format, especially since we start on Wednesday and we’ll be playing every day if we’re going to be successful. Making use of the squad could be important.

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“Andy has been our leading figure for so many years now, and was such a massive part of our team. The bottom line is everyone looks up to him. It doesn’t matter if it’s the players, the support team. He brings a huge amount of energy, experience and quality into the team. Everyone soaks that in. But on the other side, he’s just one of the guys. That’s what’s great about it. The bottom line is all of us have been friends for a very, very long time.”

There is no questioning the bonhomie around the squad. “We travelled here on Wednesday, did one session that evening and we’ve been going at it since then,” he said. “It’s been really positive.”

As for the organisation of the tournament, Smith sees only positives. “They’ve invested a lot of money to make sure the venue, facilities, transport, food, the practice courts, even the bubble courts, everything is very high quality. If you listen to most of the players’ feedback, I’m sure you’re hearing it’s very positive. They’re happy to be here, they’re making the players feel very welcome. The medical facilities are of a high standard as well.”

But tennis needs more than a sticking plaster at the moment, with this experiment cobbled together over the past 22 months and the new ATP Cup waiting to be collected in six weeks in Sydney. Smith, as ever, is upbeat.

“We are genuinely excited about this new format,” he said. “We’re all desperate for it to be a success – and I think it will be. It’s still going to be different. One of the great things – Andy mentioned it the other day – is seeing everyone in their team tracksuits, being able to practise with one another. We had a whole day against the Belgians, which was fun. We get on well with them after what we went through in the final [in Ghent four years ago]. We’ve played the Chileans, Argentinians, a number of different nations.”

If that sounds more like a summer camp in the Catskills for under-employed city kids, there is genuine intent to do well here – and decent prospects. Much, as ever, will be on Murray’s racket, whatever the permutations available.