‘Was it controversial? No’ – Leon Smith defends selection after Great Britain crash out of Davis Cup to Netherlands

Great Britain captain Leon Smith insisted there was nothing controversial about his team selection after a group stage defeat to the Netherlands sealed an early exit in Glasgow on Friday.

Daniel Evans got the Brits off to a good start with a singles win over Tallon Griekspor, but Cameron Norrie’s defeat to Botic van de Zandschulp set up a decisive doubles rubber.

Home favourite Andy Murray was paired with the top-ranked doubles player in the world, Joe Salisbury, but they were beaten by Wesley Koolhof and Matew Middelkoop in three sets.

Simth’s squad was considered one of the strongest Britain has ever had, with Norrie, Evans and Murray all ranked in the top 50 in singles and Salisbury and Neal Skupski ranked No.1 and No.3 for doubles.

Skupski didn’t feature, with Murray partnering Salisbury instead, but Smith defended his selection.

“Is it that controversial to put your two highest ranked singles players out there? No,” Smith told BBC Sport.

“Is it controversial to put the number one doubles player in the world out there? No.

“Is it controversial to put Andy Murray out there on the court here in Glasgow? I don’t think so. We believed that was the right thing to do, and that’s on me.”

The defeat was Britain’s second of the week following a loss to the United States that was also decided by a three-set doubles rubber.

Smith’s side are now out of contention in Group D, but have a final match against Kazakhstan, who have also been eliminated, on Sunday.

Murray was questioned about his selection ahead of Skupski, who was a runner-up at the US Open last week alongside the Netherlands’ Wesley Koolhof.

“I’m thinking the same thing right now … should I have played or should Neal have played,” said Murray.

“And it’s easy to think all those things. The reality is the teams we lost to are not settled doubles pairs, as well.”

He added: “If me and Joe played more together I’m sure we’d be an even stronger team. But I don’t think we played two bad matches. We actually played pretty well.”