Oslo, Feb 7
Great Britain are through to the Davis Cup Qualifiers 2nd Round after defeating Norway 3-0 in Oslo thanks to a 6-2 2-6 7-6 victory for Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool in the doubles match.
Great Britain will now face either Ecuador or Australia in the Davis Cup Qualifiers second round, with the winner moving on to the Final 8 in November. The Davis Cup Qualifiers second-round ties are set to take place in September.
Leon Smith's team needed the minimum number of matches to overcome a depleted Norwegian side, who were undoubtedly the underdogs after the withdrawal of world No. 12 Casper Ruud on Wednesday.
Cash and Glasspool, the top-ranked doubles team in the whole of the sport, were pushed all the way to a decisive tiebreak by a makeshift Norwegian pairing of Nicolai Budkov Kjaer and Viktor Durasovic.
All eyes were on the opening rubber of this tie as British No. 1 Jack Draper made his long-awaited return to the match court, his first match since August 2025.
Draper showed signs of the player who reached a career-high world No. 4 last year as he dispatched Viktor Durasovic 6-2, 6-2 in only 61 minutes.
It was then over to Cam Norrie, who came back from 4-1 down in the second set to secure a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 19-year-old Nicolai Budkov Kjaer.
Coming into day two with a two-match lead, the Brits only needed one more win to seal their place in the second round.
Up stepped last year's No. 1 doubles team on the ATP Tour, Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool, to face Budkov Kjaer and Durasovic.
The Brits showed their quality in the pressure moments of a deciding set tie-break, silencing the crowd and completing Great Britain's victory with a 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(5) win.
With the tie already wrapped up, Jacob Fearnley came in to play Budkov Kjaer in the final rubber and put on a strong performance against the ATP Next Gen semi-finalist.
Fearnley put the icing on the cake for the British team, winning 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 in an hour and 16 minutes.
In other Davis Cup action, Japan's two-day tie against Austria started on Friday. Yosuke Watanuki beat Sebastian Ofner 6-3, 6-4 to give Japan the lead, before Jurij Rodionov downed Shintaro Mochizuki 6-4, 7-5 to level for Austria.
Germany eased to a 2-0 lead against Peru with straight-sets singles wins from Yannick Hanfmann and Jan-Lennard Struff in Dusseldorf, while Denmark and hosts Croatia are knotted at 1-1 after the first day of play.
- IANS
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