Great Britain will play the United States in the World Group of the 2014 Davis Cup following yesterday's draw in London.
A 4-1 win over Croatia at the weekend ensured Great Britain, captained by Leon Smith, are back in the elite World Group for the first time since 2008 and their opponents were confirmed in the first live stream on the Davis Cup website.
Elsewhere in the draw, defending champions and top seeds the Czech Republic will host the Netherlands while their final opponents in November, Serbia, who are seeded second, will take on Switzerland - setting up a potential meeting of world No.1 Novak Djokovic with Roger Federer.
Third seeds Spain travel to Germany, Canada take on Japan and France will host Australia in the top half of the World Group draw.
In the other half Italy face fourth seeds Argentina while Belgium face a tricky trip to Kazakhstan.
World No.3 Andy Murray was in irresistible form over the weekend, winning both his singles matches in straight sets as well as partnering Colin Fleming to doubles success, despite nursing a slight back injury. It was the Scot's 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victory over world No.35 Ivan Dodig in the reverse singles on Sunday which gave Britain an unassailable 3-1 lead, with Dan Evans later defeating Mate Pavic 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) to complete a great weekend.
American siblings Mike and Bob Bryan are no strangers to the Davis Cup, having won a commitment award in April after 11 years of competition and secured their No.1 doubles status for another year before they had even taken to the court at the US Open. It was the ninth consecutive time the brothers have finished top of the pile, with their grand slam honours in 2013 totalling the Australian and French Opens as well as Wimbledon. It would not be unfair to say they will be favourites, regardless of which British pair they face next year (January 31-February 2).
John Isner, the USA's highest ranked male singles player, at No.15, and Sam Querrey are also likely to feature against Smith's men.
Smith tweeted his response to the draw last night: "It is an exciting tie in prospect with fans remembering the great drama when the nations last met. We'll go into the tie with a lot of confidence and look forward to it."
That drama was in 1999, the last time the two countries met. It also marked Britain's return to the World Group following a seven-year absence in the competition.
David Lloyd's Britain had home advantage and elected to play on a quick hard court at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena and expectations were high against the most successful team in Davis Cup history, who had won 32 titles in total.
Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski were selected in a partnership that had led the GB team to two promotions in three years while USA captain Tom Gullikson, who was without Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, called upon Jim Courier and Todd Martin alongside Alex O'Brien and Jan Michael Gambill.
The stands were packed over the three days as the British fans backed their men but Courier saw off Henman before Martin claimed a straight-sets win over Rusedski to pile the pressure on the home team.
In doubles action the next day, Henman and Rusedski came out fighting and recorded a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 victory over Martin and O'Brien to keep the tie alive.
As Henman held on to British hopes on the final day he produced a remarkable comeback against Martin, who was in control with the score at 6-4, 4-3, 30-15 but world No.7 Henman fought back to claim a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) victory to make it 2-2.
Rusedski took on Courier in a final match lasting almost four hours, with Courier clinching a dramatic victory 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 6-3, 1-6, 8-6 to hand the Americans a 3-2 win.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article