Dan Evans has been included in the Great Britain Davis Cup squad for next month’s qualifiers despite his public criticism of the captain Leon Smith.
The 32-year-old British No 2 was named in a group of five alongside Cameron Norrie, Jack Draper, Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury for a tie away to Colombia on February 3-4. This will be played on clay at altitude in Bogota only five days after the conclusion of the Australian Open on the hard courts of Melbourne.
Evans had threatened to quit the team after the five-times grand-slam doubles champion, Joe Salisbury, was selected ahead of him to partner Andy Murray in the group stages in Glasgow in September.
Britain were knocked out after losing doubles matches to the United States and the Netherlands, after which Evans said it was “f***ing annoying” that he had been overlooked. “To be frank, it’s a bit insulting also that I haven’t been picked ever to play the Davis Cup [in doubles],” he added at the time.
“This is meant in the nicest possible way to the doubles guys, there’s nothing against them, but I don’t need to play doubles on the tour to prove how good I am at doubles.”
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The inclusion of Evans suggests that he and Smith have cleared the air in recent days. But it seems there are no guarantees that Evans will play doubles this time, given that both Skupski and Salisbury have also been selected.
One notable absentee is Murray. The three-times grand-slam champion is presently Britain’s fourth-best singles player in the world rankings, at a position of No 49, and the quick transition from hard to clay would have been particularly challenging for a 35-year-old with a metal hip. He has already committed to an indoor hard-court tournament in Rotterdam, beginning on February 11.
Britain are the favourites to progress to September’s group stages, despite playing away. Colombia have only one top-250 singles player in Daniel Elahi Galan, ranked No 67, although they do have a strong doubles pairing in the former world No 1s and two-times grand slam champions, Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah.
