Great Britain have secured a place in the Davis Cup quarter-finals after Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski beat the Czech Republic.
Salisbury and Skupski won the decisive doubles match 6-4, 6-2 over Czech pair Jiri Vesely and Tomas Machac in Innsbruck, Austria, showing off their talent in the process.
Great Britain will either play Germany or Serbia in the last eight on Tuesday – but were close to being knocked out before the decisive doubles rubber.
Cameron Norrie beat Jiri Lehecka while Dan Evans lost to Machac, leaving two-time Grand Slam champion Salisbury and experienced partner Skupski needing the victory to clinch the top spot in Group C.
GB glory 🇬🇧@joesalisbury92 and @nealskupski with the nerves of steel#DavisCupFinals #byRakuten pic.twitter.com/wUODez9vYL
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) November 28, 2021
British captain Leon Smith said: “Today was tough. You look at the rankings and people think it is straightforward but it is never like that in the Davis Cup.
“I'm thrilled for these guys [Salisbury and Skupski]. To come out and play as well as they did speaks volumes. We asked for passion, determination and the quality comes after that. I'm really proud of them.”
Evans lost 6-2, 7-5 to an inspired Machac, who made his Davis Cup debut this week.
A strong start from the Czech set the standard for the match, as Machac barely missed a shot in the first set.
Evans fought back from three break points down in the second set, and had a few opportunities to hold, but Machac outclassed Evans to take the lead once again.
The Brit clawed back into the final stages of the match, and even managed to level the scores which he followed with a much-needed hold.
But a couple of big mistakes gave the world number 143 a route back on top and won four games in a row to see Czech Republic’s win.
Norrie kept Britain’s hopes of finishing top alive with a well fought 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 win over Lehecka in an hour and 43 minutes.
The Brit had a dream first set, but Lehecka hardly missed a beat as he served out the second set 6-2.
The final set saw Norrie save a break point, and then broke his opponent at a pivotal moment to go on and seal the win.
Norrie said: “I missed a lot of first balls and gave him some cheap points in the second set.
“Full credit to him, he was serving big but I managed to re-group and come back and play my game for a must win match.
"It is never easy coming in when you're one down but I came out firing and played a very clean first set.
"Start of second set was difficult, he played more aggressively. I got down on myself but the bench was incredible and got me back up again to play a similar level in the third set."