Great Britain’s Davis Cup campaign came to a disappointingly premature end in front of a record crowd in Manchester and left stalwart Dan Evans hinting at the end of his long career in the competition.
A year ago, Evans and Neal Skupski’s dramatic doubles win against France at the AO Arena sent a euphoric British team through to the final eight in Malaga.
But the emotions this time were very different despite the support of 15,700 fans, more than can fit into Centre Court at Wimbledon, as a 2-1 defeat to Canada left them third in Group D with only the top two qualifying.
This week saw Evans surpass Andy Murray and Mike Sangster in the British all-time list by playing in his 26th, 27th and 28th ties, leaving him behind only Bobby Wilson.
But he has had a difficult year, with his ranking slipping to 178, and he admitted his Davis Cup career, which began back in 2009, could now be at an end.
“There’s a good saying, which I wasn’t very good at when I was younger: ‘You’ve got to learn when to leave the party’,” said the 34-year-old, who won only nine points in a nightmare first set.
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“I need to have a think. There’s probably some better players coming than me at the minute. I don’t think it’s right to be putting Leon in awkward positions because I played X amount of ties. If I don’t feel capable of playing, I won’t come back.
“I’ve probably had my fair share now. So yeah, it could be and probably will be (the end). Here, definitely, anyway. So we’ll see how it is.”
Evans said he owes much of his success to Smith and the faith he showed in him during the tumultuous early years of his career.
Smith plans to discuss the future with Evans, but said: “He’s got to go with what he feels best for his career. I hope he stays being available.
“I’ll speak to him in the next couple of days and see where his head’s at but, regardless, he’s been a brilliant servant for his country time and time again.”
The new figurehead of the team is Jack Draper, but this proved a task too far for the 22-year-old following his run to the US Open semi-finals and he suffered a second defeat, losing out 7-6 (8) 7-5 to Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Despite knowing Britain could no longer progress, Draper gave his all to try to maintain his unbeaten record against Auger-Aliassime, ranked one place behind him at 21, and smashed his racket six times on the court after losing an extremely tight first-set tie-break.
“I need to be better, I shouldn’t be doing that, but, at the same time, sometimes it does help to release a little bit of anger and a bit of tension,” said Draper.
There was an added edge to the match carried over from their meeting last month in Cincinnati, when the umpire did not spot that the ball had bounced twice before Draper played it on match point.
“I was playing for pride,” said Draper. “I knew that Felix would really want to beat me. I think it’s good in tennis to have rivalries and to have situations where not all tennis players get on massively. Hopefully we have many more battles to come.
“Obviously US Open was an amazing couple of weeks for me. I had a tough couple of matches (here) but I did give it my all. I haven’t played too many matches in my career so far where I feel like I’ve been playing really well and lost.
Loving every second on debut! ?️
?? Henry Patten ?? pic.twitter.com/z6q6vdLxUo
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“I give myself a lot of credit for putting myself on the line. Hopefully I can use it as another experience moving forward.”
Britain at least ended on a winning note as debutant Henry Patten and Skupski won the doubles but it was a difficult week for captain Smith, with Draper jaded, Evans out of form and Cameron Norrie injured.
“We’re obviously bitterly disappointed that we’re not going off to Malaga,” Smith said.
“We had the euphoria of what it felt like last year but it wasn’t to be. Canada were really strong today. I’m not going to make any excuses. We had enough quality in our team to get over the line, we just weren’t able to do it.”
