This Page About Tennis: Bates' Cunning Plan Backfires

Tennis: Bates' Cunning Plan Backfires

A truly cunning ploy or the sort of plan always fated to go the way of one of Baldrick's finest schemes? Sadly, captain Jeremy Bates' crafty player swaps were left looking more like the latter as Great Britain lost the doubles to Switzerland to say goodbye to their hopes of regaining a place in the elite 16-nation world group. The result meant Switzerland lead 3-0 and the closing two singles this afternoon are likely to be as forlorn as the giant shed, the Geneva Palexpo, in which the tie is being played.

In fairness to Bates, the presence of Roger Federer, the nonpareil of the men's game, meant Britain were always going to struggle to win this qualifying tie - and there was method in the cunning that saw the British skipper pick Alan Mackin, ranked 233, to play Federer in Friday's opening singles. It would leave the 32-year-old Greg Rusedski fresh-legged for yesterday's doubles. But, as Federer smilingly observed after seeing off Mackin with embarrassing ease: 'If it ends up being 3-0 to us after the first two days it will look like a horrible decision.'

The biggest blow was when the 18-year-old Scot Andy Murray, who, under Bates' masterplan, was improbably promoted to Britain's number one when he made his Davis Cup singles debut on Friday, failed to convert his eye-catching progress in 2005 into a win over the Swiss number two Stanislas Wawrinka. That made the score 2-0, which became 3-0 yesterday when Federer and Yves Allegro, who have played impressively together in occasional outings on the men's tour, beat Rusedski and Murray 7-5 2-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-2.

Until Britain disappointingly fell apart in the third-set tiebreaker, it had been an absorbingly competitive doubles, not without a bit of edge. An incident earlier in that third set temporarily soured the atmosphere. Rusedski complained vigorously to the umpire, Sandra de Jenken, when she failed to call a net cord, and when she ignored him he appealed to the Swiss pair, who turned the other way. When Rusedski won the next point, he yelled loudly and pumped his fist menacingly at Allegro, the server. The crowd responded with some very un-Swiss booing.

Afterwards, Rusedski played the incident down, saying it had not affected the course of the match, which the better pair won. 'At least it got the crowd going and I like that,' he said. 'I play well off emotion.'

In a country with more scenic wonders than practically any other, it was somewhat perverse of the Swiss to choose a venue for this world group qualifying play-off that is so bland and benighted. The Geneva Palexpo, scene each year of one of the big international motor shows, is built astride a dual carriageway right next to the airport. Inside it is vast and featureless. Earlier this month, trucks dumped several tons of red clay on its floor and these were rolled out to make the court on which this tie is being played. Temporary stands were then erected around the rectangle of dirt. Rusedski and Murray played their best tennis in the third set when they came back from 4-1 down to force the tiebreaker, even breaking Federer when he served for the set at 5-3. Otherwise, Federer served impeccably, showing the virtues of placement and disguise over brutal hitting.

Bates refused to be downhearted, even though his team must go back to playing among the also-rans of world tennis next year. 'I can't fault Greg and Andy on their performance,' he said. 'It was the first time they had played together and they did very well. The third set was crucial. Once the Swiss won that they got their momentum back.'

For Bates's cunning shuffling of his players to have worked, he really needed Murray to beat Wawrinka on Friday. After his defeat, Murray objected, a mite tetchily, when a journalist suggested the result had been 'a blip' in his career. 'I wouldn't say this is a blip,' he retorted. 'I lost against a guy ranked 60 places above me who was playing on his favourite surface.'

It was a fair point, but Murray had good chances to win the second and third sets. If anything, his intensity seems to work against him in these situations. He could do worse than observe the calm that Federer, himself once prone to overwroughtness, brings to tense situations. Continue to learn more about tennis, please visit Buzzle.

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