ANDY Murray and Lleyton Hewitt fired off a few verbal volleys as they warmed up for this weekend's Davis Cup semi-final between Great Britain and Australia at the Emirates Arena. The veteran Australian said that all the pressure was on the Scottish World No 3 on his home soil of Glasgow as Leon Smith's side attempt to take the British side back to the finals of global team tennis event for the first time since 1978, with the 28-year-old countering by insisting that Hewitt might equally be feeling the strain as he attempts to bow out of tennis as Davis Cup champion.
Smith was last night weighing up a few major decisions in personnel ahead of this lunchtime's draw, with late call-up Dan Evans joining Kyle Edmund and James Ward in the mix to play Friday's second doubles rubber, most likely against Bernard Tomic. Edmund injured an ankle in practice, although it is not thought to be serious, while Ward - a serial winner on Davis Cup duty - has been searching for his best form since Wimbledon. The younger Murray sibling is likely to take on his friend and practice partner Thanasi Kokkinakis first up on Friday, with either the two two Murray brothers or Jamie and Dominic Inglot tackling Saturday's doubles, most likely against Lleyton Hewitt and the big-serving Sam Groth.
"A lot of the pressure is obviously on Andy," said Hewitt. "Whoever gets the opportunity to take him on on Day One really has nothing too lose. You can go out there, free swinging, and play your game - while Andy pretty much has to win that match in a lot of ways. It is going to be a big rubber for them I think and these young boys [Tomic and Kokkinakis] are big match players as well. We are going to try to come up with the best team plays to win three out of the five matches."
"I wouldn’t say it’s all on me," said Andy Murray. "We’ve got into this position by everyone in the team playing their part. I think there’s pressure on everybody. It’s obviously Lleyton’s last chance to win the Davis Cup and he’ll be feeling pressure as well. All of the players on his team will be feeling the same way. They have some young players that won’t have played in an atmosphere like this before either. The pressure is on us as well because everyone views this as a good opportunity. We can point fingers at one another and say that there’s pressure for certain individuals and none on the others, but they’ll be feeling the pressure as well and we’ll see who handles it better over the weekend."
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