It was a tough weekend for several countries in Davis Cup competition, with two of them being Canada and Great Britain.
Canada was beaten 3-1 in American Zone Group I play on red clay in Bogota by a Colombian team led by No. 93-ranked Santiago Giraldo, who won both his singles matches.
Normally, Giraldo, as the highest-ranking Colombian singles player, would have faced top Canadian, No. 216-ranked Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., in Sundays reverse singles. Instead, after Polansky was ineffectual in a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 loss to the No. 183-ranked Carlos Salamanca on Friday, captain Martin Laurendeau chose to substitute Davis Cup rookie Steven Diaz, 18, for Polansky in Sunday's fourth match. That followed a win by Daniel Nestor and Milos Raonic in Saturday's doubles.
Polansky qualified (three matches each time) at the Australian, French and US Opens in 2009, but went out meekly 6-1, 6-2 to No. 145-ranked Marsel Ilhan of Turkey in this year's opening round of qualifying in Melbourne. He is 3-6 so far in 2010, and had lost his previous three matches going into Davis Cup.
Diez, who was raised in Toronto before spending the past 10 years in Spain, is a clay-courter by training and he was preferred over Polansky, 21, by Laurendeau. But he went down 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to Giraldo, sealing Canada's fate.
The weekend result is troubling, especially with top player Frank Dancevic still rehabbing from surgery for a herniated disc last fall.
Probably the only consolation now is it appears likely that all Canada will need to do to maintain its spot in the Americas Zone Group I for 2011 is beat the Dominican Republic next September. That country only has two players in the ATP rankings, 29-year-old Victor Estrella, No. 300, and 20-year-old Jose Hernandez, who is No. 1237.
As bad as things are for Canada, they are worse for Great Britain. Playing in the Europe/Africa Zone Group 11, one level below Canada, the Brits were beaten on the weekend in Vilnius by the Lithuanians. Granted world No. 4 Andy Murray was not playing, but a country that has spent millions and millions of pounds (much of it coming from the Wimbledon profits) building a huge state-or-the-art tennis complex in Roehampton near London, and hiring big-name coaches, floundered against one having none of those benefits.
Lithuania was led by No. 198-ranked Ricardas Berankis, the 2007 US Open junior champ and former world No. 1 junior, who is 19, and Laurynas Grigelis, 18 and ranked No. 521. Playing singles for Britain were No. 250-ranked James Ward, 23, and Daniel Evans, 19 and No. 252. Evans lost the fifth and deciding match 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 to Grigelis.
Now, Britain will host Turkey in July and has to win to avoid a further ignominious relegation to Group III, the lowest echelon of Davis Cup play.
The defeat in Vilnius meant five lost ties in a row for captain John Lloyd, the former British No. 1 and onetime husband of tennis legend Chris Evert, and probably the end of his tenure. A frustrated Lloyd, 55, was quoted in a UK paper after the loss. "I don't do this just to walk around in a track suit saying, 'I'm Davis Cup captain,'" he said.
The early favourite to replace Lloyd is none other than transplanted Canadian Greg Rusedski, who is very involved in the (British) Lawn Tennis Association's development programs. Apparently the main problem for Rusedski, 36, in getting the job might be that he does not necessarily have the seal of approval of Murray, Britain's highly-influential No. 1 player.