Lloyd said it was too early to consider his position as team captain

Great Britain team captain John Lloyd admitted he felt "devastated" after watching his side slip to a humiliating 3-2 Davis Cup loss to Lithuania.

Britain led 2-1 going into the final day, but defeats for James Ward and Dan Evans gave the home team a shock win.

The defeat means Britain must now beat Turkey in a play-off to avoid dropping into the competition's lowest tier.

"I'm devastated for the team and more so for Dan as I thought he worked his butt off," Lloyd told BBC Sport.

Britain were without their number one player Andy Murray but were still expected to beat the Lithuanians, who boast just three world-ranked players.

But despite holding a 2-1 lead going into the Sunday's action, Ward lost to Ricardas Beraknis 7-6 6-3 6-4 before Evans lost 6-7 7-5 6-0 2-6 6-4 to Laurynas Grigelis.

"They don't have as many players to pick from as we do but their players are good," said a deflated Lloyd.

606: DEBATE Well, well, it has been a long time coming Nicholasjames45

"We obviously didn't have our number one playing, and that was certainly an evening-out point. It was a 50/50 sort of match before the start, and they were the better team."

Grigelis is ranked 269 places below Evans in the world rankings and has never played a match on the ATP World Tour, but the home player raised his game to give his country the all-important win.

"When Dan came back [into the match] I thought he would win," said Lloyd.

"The Lithuanian looked like he wasn't serving so well and I though 'Dan's got him', but in the fifth he responded with some striking of the ball which was extraordinary.

"Good luck to him, he was absolutely brilliant and deserved it. If you can go for shots like that and make them, he's got a good future."

Evans gave his thoughts on the match and his opponent via Twitter.

"I didn't expect him to play that well," he admitted. "It's almost harder to take because I felt my best today would be good enough."

Britain will face Turkey in July to avoid the drop into the Europe/African Zone Group III, while Lithuania will play Ireland - a match which Lloyd anticipated Britain would be facing.

"I was only thinking about the winner playing Ireland in the second round and we haven't done that," he said.

"I said it was going to be a rebuilding process. I would have liked to start with this win but it hasn't happened."

As for his own position, Lloyd said: "We'll see about my future, it's too early yet."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version