Great Britain will compete against Belgium in the final of the Davis Cup as they look to lift the famous trophy for the first time since 1936. In fact, Britain haven’t even reached the final since 1978 – a showpiece event that was won by the United States of America. Their opponents Belgium, meanwhile, have featured in the final just once way back in 1904 as they lost to Great Britain, then known as the British Isles.
Britain’s Davis Cup Team consists of best of the nation
The 2015 British team is the greatest group of players that the nation has seen for a long time. Consisting of Andy Murray, Dan Evans, Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot, Great Britain will fancy their chances of success ahead of November’s final series. In fact, Coral are currently pricing Britain at 1/3 to emerge victorious after the event – which includes four singles matches and a doubles contest in the middle of these fixtures.
In the semi-finals, Britain earned a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Australia. Andy Murray won both of his matches in convincing fashion whilst Dan Evans lost both of his clashes against Thanasi Kokkinakis and Bernard Tomic. In the doubles fixture, Murray teamed up with brother Jamie to take on Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth. Although it went to a fifth and deciding set, the British brothers were able to hold out for the win and leave their nation on the verge of history.
Belgian Davis Cup team made to fight
Meanwhile, their opponents also had difficulty advancing to the final. Belgium faced Argentina in the penultimate stage and, like Britain, also earned a 3-2 victory to reach the showpiece event. David Goffin and Steve Darcis both played their part in Belgium’s success but their duo of Ruben Bemelmans and Darcis struggled in the doubles match. Britain may try to exploit their weakness in this area in the finals, which get underway on 27th November.
There has been some controversy over the choice of surface in recent weeks as Belgium, who are hosting the final, opted for the event to be held on clay rather than the traditional hard court surface. While this may have originally riled Murray and Britain up, it may come back to haunt the Belgians if Murray is fired up for the event. Only time will tell but, with Murray in the team, Britain stand a great chance of their first Davis Cup success in the post-war period.
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