Lloyd admits Murrayless GB ‘beaten by better team’

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 11:30

So, that’s that. Ukraine have beaten Great Britain 3-0 with two dead rubbers to play, leaving GB in a relegation play-off with Poland in September.

And John Lloyd admitted that, without world No.4 Andy Murray who withdrew with a virus, Ukraine were indeed the better team.

“It’s a disappointing loss but the better team won,” the GB captain accepted. “We’ve got to rebuild and look forward.”

“We don’t have the depth, and that’s the bottom line” – Lloyd

Lloyd, speaking after Ross Hutchins – the only player in the squad with previous Davis Cup experience – and Colin Fleming went down in five sets to Sergeiy Bubka and Sergiy Stakovsky to slump to a 3-0 defeat, said that it was time for Britain’s tennis players to step up and prove they can compete without the British No.1.

“The way I look at it is that, when we have our No.1 player, we are a solid team with an outside chance of making it into the World Group,” said Lloyd, who gave three players their Davis Cup debut in Scotland.

“Without Andy it’s going to be tough going. That’s where we are at the moment. We don’t have the depth and that’s the bottom line – there aren’t enough to complement him.”

“We’ve got to keep pushing the guys until we can win these matches with or without Andy but obviously we like it a lot more when he’s in the team.

“It’s up to them. They realise the work needed to be at this level and play in this type of competition under these sort of pressures.

“We’ve got to rebuild and look forward. It’s a disappointing loss but the better team won.”

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