LEON Smith is refusing to second guess whether Novak Djokovic will turn out for Serbia in their Davis Cup quarter final tie against Great Britain in July - but reckons Andy Murray is capable of beating him on his own patch in any case.
The top two players in the world, five weeks on from their Australian Open final, battled away for just shy of five hours on Sunday in Birmingham and Belgrade to book their respective quarter final spots, a tie which must be played in Serbia immediately after Wimbledon at a time when the top players are building up to the Olympics.
While a summit meeting between members of the 'big four' on Davis Cup duty is a rarity - it would be the first since Djokovic met Nadal in early 2009 - it will be fascinating to see how much both men prioritise the team competition in such a congested part of the calendar, but anyone who questions Murray's commitment to the Davis Cup wasn't at the Barclaycard Arena yesterday.
“I don't have a feeling for it now," said Smith. "There's no point second guessing whether he does or he doesn't. If he does then of course it's a big, big occasion having to play Novak in a home tie in Serbia, and it will obviously be massive talking about the number one versus the number two player in the world. It will be huge. Massive coverage and a huge tie. Of course in that way it's better, but if he doesn't play then it gives us a better opportunity.
"But Andy can beat anyone - including Novak," he added. "And Davis Cup is different, you saw that with Novak, and you see that with performances like the one Kei [Nishikori] put out, he got really close to Andy. It just throws up something different, it's a different environment, you have got your team-mates on the side of the court, home and away support. It is an amazing competition that way. Funny things happen."
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