BBC SPORT | Tennis | Doubles delight for Britain

T Henman & M Maclagan (GB) 6-7 (4/7) 6-4 7-5 6-2 P Srichaphan & D Udomchoke (Thailand)

Tim Henman and Miles Maclagan gave Great Britain a 2-1 lead over Thailand following doubles victory in the Davis Cup World Group qualifier in Birmingham.

The British pair recovered from dropping the opening set to register a 6-7 6-4 7-5 6-2 win over Paradorn Srichaphan and Danai Udomchoke at the National Indoor Arena.

Miles was perfect today, he played beautifully

GB captain Roger Taylor

The result means Britain need one more point from Sunday's singles to avoid relegation from the elite 16-nation world group.

After the game Maclagan, who had not won a Davis Cup tie previously, called the victory "the greatest moment of my life".

He said: "I've served the match out about 21 times already in my room.

"I was looking for Tim to help me out and I was just hoping to make some sort of contribution."

Photo gallery: GB v Thailand

Henman, who has been nursing a shoulder injury, was quick to praise his doubles partner.

He said: "It was a phenomenal effort, he was called in at the last minute to do a job and he certainly did it today.

"The doubles is always so critical in Davis Cup, especially at 1-1. All credit to Miles, he's not played a match as important as this ever before."

Thailand won the opening set on a tie-break after Srichaphan wasted a chance at 5-4 up to serve for the set.

But Srichaphan made no mistakes in the tie-break as the Thai pair comfortably ran out 7-4 winners.

Paradorn Srichaphan
Srichaphan suffered a bad fall in the third set

The British duo capitalised on Udomchoke's weak serve in the third game to take a 2-1 lead, before going on to tie-up the set 6-4 to level the match.

GB broke Srichaphan in the opening game of the third set before the 23-year-old suffered an injury to his right knee which led to a three-minute break from play.

To the relief of the Thai team he was able to continue, and he went on to break Henman's serve with the world number five serving for the set at 5-4.

However Udomchoke was then broken in the next game in controversial fashion with two debatable line calls.

Gamewatch: Henman & Maclagan v Srichaphan & Udomchoke

Despite vigorous complaints from the Thai pair and team captain Satian Puranawit, Maclagan held his nerve to hold serve and clinch the set 7-5 for a two-sets-to-one lead.

Srichaphan was again broken at the beginning of the fourth set and the home duo quickly found themselves 4-0 up after also breaking Udomchoke.

It fell to Maclagan to serve for the match and he duly obliged to seal a 6-7 6-4 7-5 6-2 victory.


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