Leon Smith insists Alex Bogdanovic remains part of his plans despite omitting him from Great Britain’s latest Davis Cup squad.
Team GB take on Tunisia at Bolton Arena this weekend and Bogdanovic is not among the quartet selected for the Europe/Africa Zone Group II clash.
The 26-year-old had been included alongside fellow singles players James Ward and Jamie Baker in his initial squad but has since elected to stick with the pair who led Britain to their first win in six matches against Turkey.
With British number one Andy Murray again choosing not to play, Smith claims world number 374 Bogdanovic can still have a role to play in the team.
The Britain Davis Cup captain said: “When you see Alex play, he’s still an incredibly gifted player and he’s desperate to play, so it’s tough on him not getting the chance this time round.
“But he’s come back into the squad, which is really important, and I hope he gets the chance in the future. Hopefully he can build some momentum in the coming months before the next tie.”
Easy
Bogdanovic last played in the British Davis Cup team against Austria in 2008, where two singles defeats took his record to one win from eight rubbers.
His poor results saw him frozen out of the Davis Cup picture, despite being consistently Britain’s second highest ranked player behind Murray, until Smith took over from John Lloyd as captain and declared the door open again.
Bogdanovic has had an uneasy relationship with the Lawn Tennis Association over recent years after seeing his funding cut and being denied wild cards to the top British events.
Bogdanovic made himself unavailable for the Turkey tie, saying he wanted to focus on improving his singles ranking, but he is now keen to play for his country again and his captain is fully supportive of that ambition.
“It was easy, there was no persuasion needed,” said Smith of the process of tempting the London-based left-hander back.
“I think last year he wasn’t feeling that he wanted to play Davis Cup. He wanted to go off and play for his ranking but he never said he ruled himself out of Davis Cup so it was an easy phone call to ask him to come over.”
