Leon Smith has selected an unchanged side for Great Britain’s Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group II clash match with Tunisia.
Smith has kept faith with the same quartet that clinched a whitewash win over Turkey last time out, meaning Jamie Baker and James Ward retain their places for the singles rubbers.
Jamie Murray and Colin Fleming will feature in the doubles tie but there is no place in the side for Alex Bogdanovic, who made himself available for selection unlike British number one Andy Murray.
Smith admitted it was a tough decision on whether to include Bogdanovic, but the GB captain insists the players picked will get the job done at Bolton Arena this weekend.
Confident
He told Press Association Sport: “I knew it was going to be a difficult decision to make but I wanted to bring the three guys together anyway because I think they’re playing a very similar level and they’ve all got Davis Cup experience.
“But, at the end of the day, someone’s going to miss out and I’ve gone with James Ward and Jamie Baker, and I’ve got every confidence they can get the job done.”
Baker will open proceedings tomorrow against Tunisian number one Malek Jaziri before Ward, the highest-ranked Briton in the team, meets US college student Sami Ghorbel.
The doubles rubber on Saturday will pit British pair Murray and Fleming against Jaziri and Slim Hamza before the reverse singles on Sunday.
The tie is expected to be decided before then, with Britain arguably even greater favourites than they were against Turkey, where they lost only one set in five rubbers.
That victory stopped the rot that had seen the team fall to within one defeat of the lowest tier of the competition and Smith is keen for his team to kick on against Tunisia.
Stronger
He added: “They’ve got a fairly strong number one player, who’s been doing pretty well recently, and we don’t know much about the rest of the team, so it’s a case of really preparing the boys as much as we can about their own game.
“We are where we are for a reason and, without Andy (Murray), it’s up to this group of players to try to do the job on the court and, as a team, we’ve got to keep looking to win matches and look to move back up the levels.”
Tunisia are playing their first match back at this level since 2008 following promotion from Group III last year but their preparations were disrupted by January’s revolution.
Walid Jallali, the coach of world number 325 Jaziri, took the place of Ahmed Triki in the team after the teenager was unable to travel because of visa problems, and he described the problems the pair experienced while training in Tunis.
The 32-year-old said: “I was coaching Malek and we heard gunfire so we ran to get home. We did not leave our houses for a week. It was scary but it makes you stronger.”
