Davis Cup: Great Britain surge 2-1 ahead against Lithuania after doubles success

By Mark Hodgkinson in Vilnius Published: 5:40PM GMT 06 March 2010

Ahead by a nose: Great Britain doubles span explain feat in 4 sets Photo: GETTY IMAGES

And a nickname didnt equate for most at the Vitas Gerulaitis Tennis Centre on their initial coming together in the Davis Cup, as there were a little nervous, full of hair moments during their rubber opposite a blemish partnership of Lithuanian teenagers when a endangered British dais competence have used an additional f-word.

In the second and third sets of Fleming and Skupskis four-set victory, that gave Britain a 2-1 lead in a tie that the group contingency win to stop this unfortunate arching down the divisions, it appeared as though the usually element disproportion in between the dual doubles pairs was that one had an sexual pet-name and the alternative one didnt.

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Taking the initial set 6-0 was deceptive. Fleming and Skupski are in their mid-twenties and ranked inside the worlds tip 60, and nonetheless they had a little ungainly passages of fool around opposite Laurynas Grigelis, an 18-year-old who is outward the tip 900, and Dovydas Sakinis, a 17-year-old who is nonetheless to consequence a ranking.

The Lithuanians competence not have had most by approach of nous and experience, but what they did have was a total lot of healthy bent for crunching a tennis ball.

Sitting on the side of the court, the British captain John Lloyd realised that there was the probability of Flemski starting to tatter and "panic". Still, Fleming and the debutant Skupski kept themselves together, going on to win 6-0, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 for what was Britain"s initial doubles feat in the Davis Cup given Tim Henman and Jamie Murrays success opposite Croatia on the Wimbledon weed in 2007.

If Britain can measure one feat from Sundays dual singles rubbers, with James Ward due to encounter Ricardas Berankis, and Dan Evans scheduled to afterwards fool around Grigelis, Britain will win this tie and will be that bit closer to removing out of Group Two of the Euro-African Zone, the third harvesting machine of the competition.

The esteem for violence Lithuania is a tie opposite Ireland, who have completed an irrefutable 3-0 lead over Turkey in Dublin.

There was copiousness roving on this doubles, that was probably because the Lithuanians had indulged in a bit of pre-match disobedience on Friday evening, putting it out there that they were deliberation utilizing Lukas Mugevicius, who is fifteen years old and looks even younger.

All 4 members of the Lithuanian group are in their teens, but unexpected here was the probability that Britain would face someone who would experience the Davis Cup prior to he experienced puberty.

Those suggestions about a 15-year-old incited out to be nonsense, with the locals adhering with the multiple they had declared at Thursdays draw. Still, it is not as if Grigelis and Sakinis are that most comparison than Mugevicius.

In the opening set, you could see how Fleming and Skupski had won trophies in St Petersburg and Metz on the main doubles debate last season, and had knocked about the former Wimbledon champions Mike and Bob Bryan at last summers Queens Club tournament, and it was additionally transparent that the Lithuanians had never played together before.

The initial 9 points of the compare went Britains way. The point that most appropriate summed up the Lithuanians nervous, incongruous fool around in the initial set came when a round from a British pole strike the fasten of the net, looped up, and bisected the teenagers, each awaiting the alternative to try a shot.

The home group was all over the place, and, if you bar the prolonged third game, Grigelis and Sakinis won only 3 points in the set.

After only nineteen minutes, Britain were a set up, and it was formidable to think how Skupski could have had a improved begin to his Davis Cup career.

"At that stage, I was starting to think that they could have had a gentle afternoon," pronounced Lloyd. "But that only doesnt occur in Davis Cup. Their players proposed going for broke, proposed portrayal the lines."

Suddenly the throng got concerned and the volume went up at this centre on the hinterland of the city, with the Lithuanian tennis open entertaining all that went their players approach in the second set, together with each one of Britains first-serve and second-serve faults.

The British pair, who had progressing saved a integrate of set points, played a decaying tiebreak, winning only dual points. It was only as well that Flemski took the third set, as differently this rubber could have got even hairier.

Even after Britain won the third set, the Lithuanians one after another to go for their shots, carrying obviously motionless to pitch at roughly everything.

"Ken and Colin could have panicked. Theyre not stupid, as they knew we had to win the doubles and that the vigour was all on them," pronounced Lloyd.

But they didnt panic, and Lloyd felt as though he schooled some-more about Fleming and Skupski than if Flemski had left to win this easily, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2.