| Group stage venues: Bologna, Glasgow, Hamburg and Valencia Dates: 13-18 September |
| Coverage: Live TV coverage of Great Britain’s matches on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app, with selected live text commentaries and match reports on the website and app |
Great Britain failed to reach the Davis Cup Finals knockout stage after Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury lost the key doubles rubber against the Netherlands.
The Group D tie in Glasgow had been level at 1-1 after Dan Evans won in the singles before Cameron Norrie lost to set up a nail-biting finale.
But Murray and Salisbury lost a thriller 7-6 (7-0) 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 to Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop.
Victory puts the Dutch and the United States into November’s next stage.
Leon Smith’s side take on Kazakhstan on Sunday but neither side can advance, while the Netherlands will meet the United States on Saturday to decide who goes through to the Malaga event as group winner.
A minute’s silence was held again before play started and the tie is being played without the usual music between games, as a mark of respect during the period of national mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Disappointment for ‘best’ team on home soil
Great Britain had arrived in Scotland with what they felt was their strongest team ever in terms of depth, boasting three top-50 singles players as well as the world’s top and third-ranked doubles players.
They were beaten 2-1 by the United States on Wednesday in an agonisingly close and draining encounter, with all three matches going to three sets and with play finishing at nearly 01:00 BST.
With the United States then beating Kazakhstan on Thursday, and the Netherlands having triumphed in their opener against the Kazaks, the permutations in this tie were straightforward for the hosts – win or you’re out.
Dan Evans gave the passionate home crowd hope with an assured performance against Tallon Griekspoor, capitalising on the greater variety in his game and a propensity for a brilliant passing shot to beat him 6-4 6-4 and send the packed Emirates Arena leaping to their feet in celebration.
But their joy was short-lived when British number one Norrie put in a below-par showing against world number 35 Van de Zandschulp, whom he had beaten 6-1 6-2 just a few weeks ago in Canada.
Norrie, who had also been out of sorts in his match against American Taylor Fritz on Wednesday before turning it around, was unable to recover from a poor start after being broken in the third game of the first set.
Although he saved three set points, the world number eight could do nothing about the fourth and was then immediately broken at the start of the second.
World number 35 Van de Zandschulp was dominant on serve, racking up 13 aces, and also hit 18 winners to Norrie’s four in a thoroughly deserved win where he said he had “played almost a perfect match”.
And so it came down to the doubles.
Andy Murray has had by far the biggest cheers this week when his name has been announced, with the three-time Grand Slam champion returning to the men’s team tournament for the first time since 2019.
He had spoken of his regret at the “mistake” of skipping the Davis Cup last year and about how he was now ready to help the team this year even if he did not end up playing.
He ended up playing twice but could not rescue the tie.
He and Salisbury broke in the first game of the match and went 3-1 up but were broken to love to allow the Dutch to make it 4-4 and eventually take it to a tie-break, where they did not drop a point.
The Britons may have started to sense things might not go their way when Middelkoop won the most unlikely point in that tie-break, where he had been sprawled across the floor midway through the point only to leap up acrobatically and volley a winner at the net.
But there were still more twists to come as a closely fought second set headed into a seemingly inevitable tie-break.
A series of stunning winners from Murray triggered ovations before complete silence as a smash from Middlekoop brought up match point.
Salisbury held his nerve – and his serve – in style with a booming delivery that Middelkoop could only hit long and the Britons then claimed the set when a Murray shot caught the net in a lucky spot to trigger wild celebrations from their watching team-mates, including a jubilant lap of honour from Evans.
But missed chances at 3-3 and a loose service game from Salisbury in the next game pooped the party as Murray hit wide to hand the Dutch pair a break that left them serving for the match. Having had to wait 50 minutes since their previous match point they were not about to miss another chance and secured the victory when Murray netted.
