Davis Cup: Britain odds-on to end 79-year wait for success
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Great Britain are the red hot favourites to win the 2015 Davis Cup and end a 79-year wait for success after Andy Murray played through the pain to ensure a first final since 1978.
Murray’s movement was restricted somewhat when he and brother Jamie played in their doubles win over Lleyton Hewitt and Samuel Groth but the Scot dug in and even went on to beat Bernard Tomic 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 to give Britain an unassailable 3-1 lead that ensured they reached the final in Belgium.
Britain are now priced at 1/3 to lift the trophy in November, with Belgium deemed the slight outsiders at 9/4.
However, despite the betting, with home advantage and a pool of talent that flies below the radar, Belgium should not be underrated.
The combined world ranking of Britain’s Davis Cup singles specialists – Andy Murray (3), James Ward (142) and Dan Evans (258) comes in at 403, whereas Belgium’s – David Goffin (15), Steve Darcis (59) and Kimmer Coppejans (132) comes in much lower at 206.
Britain do have the upper hand when it comes to doubles, however, with Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot ranked seventh and 26th respectively in the ATP doubles rankings, compared to Belgium’s Niels Desein and Ruben Bemelmans, who rank 192nd and 268th at doubles and have lower rankings as singles players.
As ever, much will depend on the availability of the world number three, but with Murray recently indicating that he is willing to forego the end-of-year ATP World Tour finals at London’s O2 in order to play, the Brits are heavily fancied to wrap up a first Davis Cup success since 1936.
Commenting on a potentially-hectic end-of-year schedule, Murray told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The O2 would obviously be a question mark for me if we were playing on the clay. I would go and train and prepare on the clay to get ready for the final.
“You saw last year with Roger Federer that the matches at the O2 are extremely tough and physically demanding. If you reach the final and play on the Sunday you also need to take time off – you can’t just play five matches against the best players in the world and then not take any days off.”
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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