Fleming and Marray boost GB hopes

Colin Fleming and Jonny Marray kept Great Britain's hopes of victory over Russia alive with an emphatic doubles victory in the Davis Cup at Coventry's Ricoh Arena.

Dan Evans and James Ward had fought for a combined total of nearly eight hours in their singles matches on Friday only to both lose out in five sets, but it took Fleming and Marray only an hour and 29 minutes to defeat Igor Kunitsyn and Victor Baluda 6-1 6-4 6-2.

For Wimbledon doubles champion Marray it was a perfect debut at the age of 32, and the British team must now hope Evans and Ward can win the reverse singles clashes on Sunday to send them through to a World Group play-off in September.

Given the difference in rankings, that remains very much an outside chance, although both players showed enough on Friday to indicate it is not impossible.

Britain have only come back from 2-0 down to win a Davis Cup tie once in their history - and that was in 1930 - but Saturday's rubber represented their banker.

Fleming has won his last seven Davis Cup rubbers, the last three with Ross Hutchins, who is taking an enforced break from tennis this year as he receives treatment for cancer.

Marray had been in the team once before, when he was an unused fourth member against Luxembourg nine years ago, but has shown over the last nine months what a fine doubles player he is.

As well as the Wimbledon win, Marray and Dane Freddie Nielsen also reached the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in November, and both himself and Fleming are in the world's top 30 in doubles.

In contrast, Kunitsyn and Baluda are both principally singles players, and they were comfortably beaten.