John Lloyd, the Great Britain captain, will seek confirmation from Andy Murray that he will be willing to play in the Davis Cup tie against Ukraine next spring on a surface yet to be decided.
John Lloyd, the Great Britain captain, will seek confirmation from Andy Murray that he will be willing to play in the Davis Cup tie against Ukraine next spring on a surface yet to be decided.
The British team, seeking an immediate return to the elite World Group level, will host the Europe/Africa Zone Group I tie from May 8-10 next year after being matched against Ukraine in yesterday's draw in Madrid.
Murray did express his commitment to the team after the weekend's 3-2 defeat by Austria, a result which ensured relegation to the Davis Cup's second tier. But he was disillusioned by the performances and lack of passion shown by his team-mates, most notably Alex Bogdanovic, who lost both his matches including the decisive rubber against Alexander Peya.
In addition, Murray, who reached the final of the US Open earlier this month, will want to build on that by trying to win his first grand slam. The tie against Ukraine will come in the middle of the clay-court season and, while clay is his least favourite surface, the Scot's body struggles with the transition between surfaces.
The world No.4 may therefore view the Davis Cup as an unwelcome distraction as he attempts to reel in Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
Ukraine are ranked 41st in the world, 17 places lower than Britain, and top player Sergiy Stakhovsky is rated only No.83 in the singles standings. However, he would be favourite to win two of the singles rubbers if Murray were not available for Britain.
Bogdanovic, the British No. 2, has yet to win a live Davis Cup rubber in six attempts and once again exposed the lack of depth in British tennis. The nation's second-best player faces a bleak future in the competition but he is 41 places above the No.3, John Goodall.
The doubles pairing of Jamie Murray and Ross Hutchins also came up short and team captain John Lloyd drew criticism for his decision not to select the Murray brothers as a pairing.
Ukraine also have Ilia Marchenko, the world No.213 and Sergei Bubka, ranked at 285, and Lloyd said: "This is definitely a match we are capable of winning.
"Stakhovsky is a good young player who is on the up and can play well on any surface, but I think this is a good draw for us. We beat them last time when we had to travel away so I'm confident that we will be able to do it again.
"Now it's time for us to do a bit of research on what is the best surface for the players.
"I'll spend some time studying the results of their players over the last year and start thinking about where we're going to play."
Murray beat Stakhovsky in straight sets when Britain dispatched Ukraine three years ago and his ongoing involvement will be Lloyd's top priority.
Meanwhile, Argentina's bid to host the Davis Cup final against Spain on indoor carpet will be accepted only if the country's federation selects a venue that meets stringent crowd-capacity requirements, International Tennis Federation officials said yesterday.
Argentina captain Alberto Mancini said after the semi-final win over Russia that the team would host the November 21-23 final on a fast-playing surface to gain an advantage over Spain, who, led by four-time French Open champion Nadal, have arguably the world's best clay-court roster.
Cordoba's Orfeo Stadium has a fast synthetic surface, but the stadium falls short of the 12,000-seating capacity required by the ITF to host a final.
"The rules are not open to interpretation," said ITF executive vice-president and Davis Cup committee chairman Juan Margets.
