IF Great Britain do go on to win the Davis Cup this year their triumph will be made in Scotland, but girders won't come into it. The roof at the Flanders Expo Centre in Ghent is three centimetres short of ITF stipulations, and while the British team, including captain Leon Smith and lob expert Andy Murray, downplayed this controversy, the relaxed World No 2 also used it for an injection of light relief. Had the low roof caused a problem in practice? "Some of Leon's forehands have ended up in there, but I don't think it's affected the rest of us really," he joked, drawing something of a look from his captain.

This pre-final press conference was also the scene of a minor diplomatic faux pas from Smith's opposite number, Belgium captain Johan van Herck. In what is this country's first Davis Cup final since 1904 - when they also went down to a British team including a pair of brothers, Reggie and Laurie Doherty - Van Herck said it was crucial for a partisan home crowd "to get on the back a little bit of the English - sorry the Brits, if I have to be correct." It was an easy mistake to make and nobody took offence. Everybody knew that what he was really trying to say was the Scots.

This form of tennis is a team game, of course, but as far as Britain are concerned one man always takes top billing. While a shock victory for Davis Cup debutant Kyle Edmund against David Goffin today would leave the possibility of Andy and Jamie Murray sealing the deal in the doubles on Saturday, the World No 2 is bracing himself to play all three days and feels fit enough to do so. Should he win all three to lift the gargantuan trophy donated by Harvard student Dwight Davis back in 1900 he would join the likes of John McEnroe, Michael Stich and Ivan Ljubicic as the only players in the Open Era to have won 11 Davis Cup rubbers in a calendar year. Indeed, he might have equalled John McEnroe's perfect dozen from 1982 had he not skipped the doubles against USA after James Ward racked up the only non-Murray points accrued during this year's campaign victory against John Isner.

Strange things can happen in the Davis Cup, but it would be one of the biggest shocks of in the 115-year history of his competition if he wasn't racking up a 32nd point in this competition by close of play today. While Andy Murray and his opponent Ruben Bemelmans have never met before, either competitively or in practice, perhaps that is because the World No 2 and the World No 109 essentially inhabit different worlds.

While the Scot spent last week tuning his game amongst the superstars of the sport at the ATP World Tour Finals in front of 17,000-paying spectators, Bemelmans was fulfilling a previous commitment by turning out for Breton club Quimperle in the Premier Division of the semi-professional French club championship. While he won both matches, in singles and doubles, this is hardly the IPTL we are talking about. It is a bit like the World No 2 donning Bridge of Allan colours for a local derby against Stirling or Lionel Messi warming up for the World Cup final by playing for Newell's Old Boys' old boys.

Anyway, Bemelmans, the left hander and World No 109, reckons his relative lack of exposure to the cameras gives him an edge. "I think I probably know him better, how he plays, than him me," said the 27-year-old. "Maybe I have a slight advantage there."

He obviously doesn't know Andy Murray as well as he thinks then. While the Scot's lack of matches against all four of his Belgian opponents is a statistical quirk of this tie - he has met Goffin twice, winning both comfortably, and seemed to briefly forget yesterday about how he beat Steve Darcis in Glasgow way back in 2003 to win his first ever tournament - he promptly rhymed off an encyclopaedic knowledge of Bemelmans' life and work. "We're not that surprised [that he, and not Darcis, was picked]," said the 28-year-old. "The last couple days obviously Leon and the coaching team have been watching their practices. That was kind of what we thought was going to happen. So it's good that we were prepared for that.

"I don't know him extremely well, but I've watched some of his matches this year," he added. "I saw him play at the US Open a bit. I saw some of his match against Wawrinka. I watched some videos of him playing in the Davis Cup before."

At least Bemelmans has no intention of being beaten before he walks on court. He lost in three tight sets to Wawrinka at Flushing Meadows and is a confident big guy. Asked how he was going to overcome the World No 2, his first answer was to snap back "by winning the last point". "I'm not going to discuss tactics here," he added. "I think we have a clear plan and it's up to me to execute this as well as possible."

As much as success in their first Davis Cup final since 1978 clearly means to Andy and Jamie Murray, captain Leon Smith, the remainder of the British team and a travelling army which will stretch into four figures and will be led as usual by the Stirling Uni barmy army, it should not be underestimated how much this has also become a holy grail for Belgium. It is quite an advantage to play a final on home soil. Literally, in the case of the clay which has been laid in the Flanders Expo Centre. Particularly when they haven't had to leave their home country all year.

Perhaps one day these finals will be played on neutral territory but throw in the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, and its security-related contagion to Brussels, and this is a nation with a cause. "This weekend is about sports," said Bemelmans. "I hope the people don't think too much about what's going on in Europe right now. And hopefully we can give the people a bit of smiles on their faces by winning this Davis Cup."