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Few people across London enjoyed a more soothing night’s sleep than Leon Smith on Saturday. After an ideal first day for his team in their Davis Cup qualifier against Ecuador, where his singles players handled business efficiently, the Great Britain captain had the luxury of calling upon one member of each of the two best doubles pairs in the world to close out the tie.
In just their second match as partners rather than rivals, the world No 1, Henry Patten, and Neal Skupski, the US Open champion a week ago, played their roles to perfection as they convincingly sealed their place in the Davis Cup Final 8 with a clinical 6-3, 6-4 victory over Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo, earning Great Britain an unassailable 3-0 lead. Harry Wendelken, the British No 7, closed out the tie with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Angel Veliz in the dead rubber.
The British team will next head to Bologna for the quarter-final knockout stage of the competition, which takes place between 24 and 29 November in the final week of the tennis season, for the first time since 2023. Their success in east London was dictated by wins on Saturday by Arthur Fery, the British No 1, and the No 5, Toby Samuel, who overcame tense starts before settling down and easing to victory.
“There’s obviously a lot of tennis to be played before [the Davis Cup Finals], but it’s really a great thing to look forward to,” said Smith. “I’m really pleased how each of the players have gone about things in different ways yesterday and today. I think starting today, it’s a real privilege to have Henry and Neil at the top of the game. And just like we talked about in the singles, upsets happen, but they didn’t let it happen. The way they prepare, their quality, their competitiveness. I thought they were excellent.”
On Saturday evening, Smith had warned that there would probably be few breaks in the doubles match due to the fast indoor conditions inside the Copper Box. It was a source of great pleasure, then, when Patten and Skupski burst into the match with a brilliant opening return game, immediately breaking serve with no fewer than three lob winners, including a particularly sweet backhand from Skupski on break point. They did not face a break point in the match, finally breaking serve at 4-4 in the second set from a brilliant forehand return winner by Skupski. “Very happy to play with Henry,” said Skupski, smiling. “It’s a privilege to play with the world No 1.”
Patten responded to the compliment by rolling his eyes, drawing laughter from Skupski and Smith: “It’s a privilege for me to play with the US Open champion as well. Former world No 1.”
This has been a good weekend for the Davis Cup, with ties around the world attracting strong crowds and great atmospheres, including the sold-out Copper Box. This was undoubtedly a great draw for the British team – in the best tie of the weekend, the United States were toppled 3-2 by an excellent Czech squad before 13,000 fans each day in Prague while France fell to Canada in front of 10,000 Québecois fans led by Félix Auger-Aliassime – but this is still a good result.
It is also a good reflection of the Great Britain team’s overall depth, with five British players currently inside the singles top 100. They were still able to succeed in the absence of their two most successful active singles players. While Jack Draper has been sidelined for an extended period, Cameron Norrie could only passionately cheer on from the sidelines this week after he was forced to withdraw at the last minute due to injury.
The draw for the final eight will be made on Tuesday. With Germany, Austria, South Korea, Czechia, Canada and the home nation Italy all qualified, and Spain likely to take the final spot, Britain’s next opponent will probably present a far greater challenge. “If everyone’s fit and healthy, we’re going to have some difficult choices to make as well,” said Smith. “But it’ll be tough. You’ve seen the players that have played this weekend for the [other] nations and others will, I presume, come in, whether that’s [Jannik] Sinner or [Carlos] Alcaraz, if they make it. So it’s going to be tough, but that’s exactly why you want to be in the final eight. You want that excitement.”
