Davis Cup: Great Britain lose 2-1 to United States in opening group tie

Group stage venues: Bologna, Glasgow, Hamburg and Valencia Dates: 13-18 September
Coverage: Live TV coverage of Great Britain’s matches on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app, with selected live text commentaries and match reports on the website and app

Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury lost a late-night doubles decider as Great Britain were beaten 2-1 by the United States in their Davis Cup group opener.

Briton Cameron Norrie had fought back to beat Taylor Fritz and level the tie after Dan Evans lost to Tommy Paul.

GB play two more ties in Glasgow as they aim for November’s knockout stage.

A minute’s silence was held at the start of the tie at Emirates Arena following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the British players are wearing black armbands or ribbons for their three Group D ties this week.

Great Britain will play the Netherlands on Friday and Kazakhstan on Sunday as they seek one of the two qualifying spots in the group.

Each nation plays two singles matches and one doubles against their group opponents in a best-of-three sets format. There are three other cities hosting groups this week as 16 nations chase spots in November’s finals in Malaga.

Murray fails to make winning return to Davis Cup team

Murray had spoken before the match about his “regret” over skipping the Davis Cup last year, saying he had known it was a “mistake” as soon as he started watching the team playing on the television.

He had also said he did not expect to play here – but given that it was the Scottish three-time Grand Slam champion who received the biggest cheers of the night when his name was announced, it seemed unlikely that he would not feature at some point this week.

Murray and Salisbury raced into a 3-0 lead in the opening set but they then lost three in a row before making the breakthrough in a lengthy 12th game that went to six deuces, taking the set on their third set point when Sock netted off Murray.

Murray and Salisbury had the advantage that they were playing Salisbury’s regular doubles partner Ram, with whom he had retained the US Open men’s doubles title last week.

But of course that goes both ways and in the second set it was the Americans who found some rhythm.

After going 3-1 down, Sock and Ram only let the Britons take seven more points in the set as they forced a deciding set, which they won with a Ram smash at the net after they had broken to lead 6-5.

There have been six group matches so far this week Glasgow and all have gone to three sets.

Crowd lifts Norrie but it is not enough

The day had started with a high-quality match between Evans and Paul, which was as close a contest as their world rankings suggested it would be, with the Briton ranked just four places higher than his American opponent Paul at 25th in the world.

Evans was beaten 6-4 4-6 6-4, meaning Norrie knew he had to win his match against Fritz to keep Great Britain in the tie.

Norrie had been out of sorts for much of the match until taking control of a second-set tie-break and riding the momentum to win 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-5.

The world number eight had quickly found himself a double break down at 5-1 as the first set ran away from him as he paid the price for 12 unforced errors to his opponent’s four.

An early break in the second enabled Norrie to go 3-0 up but he then gifted Fritz a break with a wild forehand.

With music not being played at the arena as a mark of respect during the national period of mourning, it was up to fans to generate the atmosphere that could fire up Norrie.

And they did.

The football-style chants and the drums played their part and the Briton then raised his own decibels with a roar as he fended off a break point to hold for 6-5.

The tenacious Fritz forced a tie-break but Norrie by now was finding some of the form that has lifted him up the rankings and he took command.

He capitalised on a Fritz double fault and unleashed an overhead winner to bring up three set points, converting the first when the American netted.

Norrie broke in the ninth game of the deciding set, but failed to serve out victory as he sent a backhand long. But he did not make the same mistake at the second time of asking as Fritz went long to send the crowd to their feet.

“Honestly, I owe it all to the crowd. You guys were amazing,” said Norrie, whose dad David is from Glasgow and was in the stands watching.

“I wasn’t really playing my best, Taylor came out firing. I managed to get to a second set tie-break, I played well in the tie-break and then the third set as well.

“I loved the atmosphere. It’s just great to be back in Glasgow and to play a match like that in front of you guys.”

But while the crowd did their best to cheer on Murray and Salisbury well into the night, the dream start to their home group stage was not to be.