British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

RE: Week 37 - Davis Cup Qualifier (World Group I): Poland vs Great Britain

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

This is a serve

x.com/wearetennis/status/1966854710515667372

Smudge226 · Club Coach

Coup Droit wrote:
Smudge226 wrote:
The polish pair were inspired but I didn't think Cash played well over all. His returns were poor in the later stages. Lost count of how many times he tried to lob but just offered up the smash opportunity. They'll be very disappointed with that.
Do you know if Louis Cayer was there courtside as part of the team?

Yes he was CD and from what I could see passing many messages to Smith around the bench, pretty active as part of the backroom team. On that note GB have an impressive back team, so many, no doubt physio amongst them and all sorts. Mark Petchy I recognised and other regular faces but I can't put names to them.

Smudge226 · Club Coach

Tennis Saltire wrote:
Job done with a rubber to spare so not all bad :)

Hopefully Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool learn from this loss because we know their a lot better than that.

Cam was his usual dependable self but tbh he was the outright favourite in both matches so anything other than wins would have been disastrous.

I was very impressed with Arthur on debut, even when it got twitchy in the middle of both sets he stuck to his gameplan and excuted :).

Leon has an embarrassment of riches now with Billy Harris, Arthur Fery, Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley all options for the singles and Julian Cash/Lloyd Glasspool and Neal Skupski/Joe Salisbury doubles options, it would be good to have another couple of options too just in case of injuries and loss of fo etc.

Bring on February and hopefully a home tie

Agreed, plenty to be upbeat about. The singles played well enough and generally the Poles out played their rankings by a margin to at least put up a scrap, fair play to them. I think Evans said as much in commentry today as well. I think Indy might have said it somewhere recently, GB have a few top 250 players emerging with JoMo, JPJ and Fery in their early 20's coming hard on the heals of 23yo odds Fearnley and Draper. Things looking healthier with more depth hopefully to come, which as we know is essential to back up top 25 who often then don't commit to qualifying rounds.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

As an aside, Harri H and his partner, Virtanen, went down today in DC versus Bulgaria. It was close but it continues Harri's poor form.

I have wondered if the struggles he and Henry have had recently to find top form are largely linked to Harri; he seemed to dip when faced with becoming World Number One a few months back and doesn't seem to have really got his mojo back since that let down. He seems to navel gaze a lot and I wondered if he dwelt on it too much?

I like Harri a lot, I like his blog and it's great to hear his views and insights. I like that he has partnered and done well with British players like Lloyd and Henry. But I don't think all is top notch with his game right now and it could be largely in the head

Tennis Saltire · Junior player

JonH comes home wrote:
Tennis Saltire wrote:
Job done with a rubber to spare so not all bad :)

Hopefully Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool learn from this loss because we know their a lot better than that.

Cam was his usual dependable self but tbh he was the outright favourite in both matches so anything other than wins would have been disastrous.

I was very impressed with Arthur on debut, even when it got twitchy in the middle of both sets he stuck to his gameplan and excuted :).

Leon has an embarrassment of riches now with Billy Harris, Arthur Fery, Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley all options for the singles and Julian Cash/Lloyd Glasspool and Neal Skupski/Joe Salisbury doubles options, it would be good to have another couple of options too just in case of injuries and loss of fo etc.

Bring on February and hopefully a home tie
I dont think we should discount Henry P as an option for doubles, eg if Lloyd was injured, he and Julian are still good friends and could surely partner. Luke Johnson could still get up there, hes been injured and stalled, but when fit should progress .

behind the list of singles players you mention, others behind them like Jack PJ could come through, and behind that, some may come through without listing names.

Let's not discount young Max Basing when talking about youngsters that can potentially break through and be in contention for the Davis Cup squad in future :).

Oh darn, I completely forgot about both Henry Patten and Luke Johnson as doubles options and I noticed when checking doubles rankings that both are in the Top 30 doubles rankings.

I seen an article online where Leon Smith was saying we have a great chance of winning the Davis Cup next year as long as our top players commit to playing the event. It must be really hard for him to pick a 5 man squad with so many options in both singles and doubles, it's such a privileged position to be in :).

Anyway, we won't know until the end of November who we have in the qualifiers.

indiana · Tennis legend

I assume Leon really is thinking this with regards to having our very top singles players committing and staying fit, ie. Jack, Cam, maybe Jake if he can push on again. These are surely his preferred singies choices now ( if were fit ) and probably for the next year or so.

While we are building much better top 250 depth, if talking winning the Davis Cup next year these additional players are as yet nowhere near what we need for the ultimate prize ( well unless the withdrawal rate from the finals really steps up ). In singles at least we still have that limited top end pool so need these available ( in theory actually possibly just one very good one, though it practically being won by one singles player such as Andy plus doubles is no doubt an exception ).

But we are building more singles players in that next rung and of an age that we then increase the odds that some, such as Arthur and JPJ, may come through to be equipped for the Davis Cup sharp end somewhere down the line.

Doubles on the other hand, choices upon choices.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 15th of September 2025 08:21:34 AM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Realise there is no British interest in the finals, but the initial teams for the finals are announced as below - personally, fancy Germany for this. Surprised Sinner isnt playing, maybe I missed the story as to why?

2025 Davis Cup Final 8 teams
France
Ugo Humbert, Arthur Rinderknech, Benjamin Bonzi, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Captain: Paul-Henri Mathieu
Belgium
Zizou Bergs, Raphael Collignon, Sander Gille, Joran Vliegen, Captain: Steve Darcis
Italy
Lorenzo Musetti, Flavio Cobolli, Matteo Berrettini, Simone Bolelli, Andrea Vavassori, Captain: Filippo Volandri
Austria
Filip Misolic, Jurij Rodionov, Lukas Neumayer, Lucas Miedler, Alexander Erler, Captain: Jurgen Melzer
Spain
Carlos Alcaraz, Jaume Munar, Pedro Martinez, Marcel Granollers, Captain: David Ferrer
Czechia
Jiri Lehecka, Jakub Mensik, Tomas Machac, Vit Kopriva, Adam Pavlasek, Captain: Tomas Berdych
Argentina
Francisco Cerundolo, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Francisco Comesana, Horacio Zeballos, Andres Molteni, Captain: Javier Frana
Germany
Alexander Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff, Yannick Hanfmann, Kevin Krawietz, Tim Puetz, Captain: Michael Kohlmann