Toby Samuel had never played a Davis Cup match before Saturday afternoon. Within ten minutes of walking onto the court at the Copper Box Arena he was 0-4 down to Ecuador’s Andres Andrade, and Great Britain’s qualifying tie was threatening to start badly. Samuel won 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Arthur Fery, also 24 and also making his home debut, followed with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Alvaro Guillen Meza to put Britain 2-0 ahead after day one. Two debutants, two points, and a tie that was effectively decided before the doubles pairing even appeared.
“It’s a completely new experience for me playing Davis Cup and it definitely caught me off guard how much it meant to me going out there,” Samuel said. “It almost felt like a bigger deal than playing any Slam for me.”
A call-up with 48 hours’ notice
Samuel only learned he would be playing on Thursday night, after Cameron Norrie pulled out with arm pain picked up in practice. “I was expecting Cam and Arthur to be the ones playing today,” he said.
That explains the opening game-and-a-half. Samuel dropped the first set having spent much of it chasing, then found his range in the second and broke Andrade twice in the third to close it out. “That’s definitely the most nerves I’ve had before a match, even more than the slams I’ve played,” he said.
Fery’s win was the more straightforward of the two. He edged a tight first set 7-5, then took the second 6-0 against an opponent ranked outside the world’s top 200. Britain’s No. 1 had made his own Davis Cup debut in the win over Poland in September 2025, which makes him the senior figure in a lineup that has almost no collective experience of the competition.
“We’re used to travelling alone the whole year and coming out as a team in front of all of you guys today in London is unbelievable,” Fery said. “You get goosebumps walking out. You’re playing for a whole nation, there’s more responsibility on your shoulders.”
Why a depleted squad mattered
Leon Smith arrived at the Copper Box without four players he would have picked. Jack Draper ended his 2026 season early. Jacob Fearnley and Jan Choinski were both injured. Norrie was the late withdrawal, though he stayed with the squad all weekend.
Ecuador were not a token opponent. In February they beat Australia 3-1 in Quito, a result described at the time as the worst of Lleyton Hewitt’s captaincy. They also have form against Britain: in 2000 they won a tie at Wimbledon against a home team containing Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski. Ties on British soil are not automatic.
Britain’s recent Davis Cup record made the stakes clearer still. They lost 2-0 to Serbia in the 2023 Final 8 in Malaga, with Novak Djokovic beating Norrie 6-4, 6-4 and Miomir Kecmanovic beating Draper in two tie-breaks. A group-stage exit followed in 2024, then a qualifying defeat by Japan in 2025. This was also the first Davis Cup tie staged in London for a decade.
Bologna, and what Britain found out
Henry Patten and Neal Skupski completed the job on Sunday, beating Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo 6-3, 6-4 to clinch the tie. Harry Wendelken, a third debutant, won the dead rubber 6-2, 6-3 against Angel Veliz for a 4-0 sweep. Across both qualifying ties — Norway away in February, Ecuador at home — Britain won all eight rubbers.
- Samuel bt Andrade 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
- Fery bt Guillen Meza 7-5, 6-0
- Patten/Skupski bt Escobar/Hidalgo 6-3, 6-4
- Wendelken bt Veliz 6-2, 6-3
Britain go to the Final 8 in Bologna from 24-29 November, joining Austria, Canada, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Korea and one of Chile or Spain. “Three years — it feels like quite a long time,” Smith said. “To do it in three straight rubbers is really good and I’m actually delighted for the guys to look forward to something at the end of the year.”
Smith was realistic about November, noting that a seeded team in the Final 8 is “extremely strong” but that “you’ve got a chance”. The doubles gives him a genuine argument: Patten is the world No. 1, Skupski is ranked third and has played 15 Davis Cup ties.
The wider gain is in the singles. Samuel has climbed from outside the top 250 to No. 95 in nine months, with five Challenger titles and a first Grand Slam match win at the US Open. Britain went into this weekend short of four players and still won every rubber. That is the result worth carrying into Bologna.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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