Toby Samuel learned he would be making his Davis Cup debut on Thursday night. By Saturday afternoon he had beaten Ecuador’s Andres Andrade 4-6 6-4 6-1 at a sold-out Copper Box Arena, and admitted the occasion had blindsided him.
“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,” said the 24-year-old, ranked 95th in the world. “It almost felt like a bigger deal than playing any Slam for me.”
Arthur Fery followed with a 7-5 6-0 win over Alvaro Guillen Meza to put Great Britain 2-0 up in the qualifying tie, leaving Leon Smith’s side one rubber from a place at the Davis Cup Finals in Bologna in November — their first appearance at the eight-team event since 2023.
Samuel survives the nerves
Samuel was not supposed to be on court at all. He was called up after Cameron Norrie felt pain in his arm during a practice session in London, and the extent of Britain’s problems ran further than that: Jack Draper has ended his season early, while Jacob Fearnley and Jan Choinski are both injured.
“I was expecting Cam and Arthur to be the ones playing today,” Samuel said.
The nerves showed. He dropped the opening four games against Andrade, a player ranked 108 places below him, and lost the first set before finding a rhythm that Ecuador’s No.1 could not live with. Samuel took the second 6-4 and the third for the loss of one game.
“This was a big dream of mine and you could sort of tell because I got a bit nervous at the start, but I got myself going,” he said.
It caps a remarkable nine months. Samuel began the year outside the world’s top 250 and has since won five ATP Challenger titles, reached a first tour-level semi-final at Eastbourne and recorded his maiden Grand Slam main-draw win at the US Open.
Fery repays the faith
Fery, now ranked 36th, needed only 68 minutes of resistance from Guillen Meza before the match turned. Level at 5-5 in the first set, the Briton won nine of the last ten games.
This was his first Davis Cup appearance on home soil, and it came two months after he became the first wild card in 25 years to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals, a run he backed up by reaching his first ATP final at Winston-Salem.
“You get goosebumps walking out,” Fery said. “You’re playing for a whole nation, there’s more responsibility on your shoulders. We’re used to travelling alone the whole year and coming out as a team in front of all of you today in London is unbelievable.”
Smith handed Fery his debut in Gdynia last September, when Britain beat Poland 3-1 to reach these qualifiers. Fery has not forgotten it: “Leon gave me that trust to play a match in Poland, so that helped me a lot.”
The captain’s pre-tie assessment — “you have to start somewhere and I have a lot of confidence in Arthur, Toby and our doubles team” — has so far been vindicated on both counts that mattered on day one.
One win from Bologna, but Ecuador have form
Britain’s route back to the Finals has been a slow repair job. They lost 2-0 to Serbia in the 2023 quarter-finals in Malaga, Novak Djokovic beating Norrie and Miomir Kecmanovic beating Draper. They then finished third in their group in Manchester in 2024 and lost 3-2 to Japan in the 2025 qualifiers before a 4-0 win over Norway in February set up this tie.
Sunday begins at 12:00 BST with the doubles, where Britain send out world No.1 Henry Patten and world No.3 Neal Skupski — between them holders of three of the last two seasons’ major doubles titles — against Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo. Reverse singles follow if required.
Ecuador will not consider the tie gone. In February they beat Australia 3-1 in Quito, Hewitt’s worst result as captain, with Escobar and Hidalgo clinching it 7-6(5) 6-4. They also have precedent in England: in 2000 they knocked out a British team containing Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski.
Win one more rubber and Britain join seven other qualifiers and defending champions Italy in Bologna from 24-29 November.
**Sources:** [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/tennis/news/12110/13589856/davis-cup-arthur-fery-and-toby-samuel-give-great-britain-lead-over-ecuador-to-move-them-closer-to-knockout-stage) · [Yahoo Sports — Samuel ‘caught off guard’](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/samuel-caught-off-guard-winning-163654697.html) · [Yahoo Sports — Fery and Samuel put GB in driving seat](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/fery-samuel-put-great-britain-183326403.html) · [LTA](https://www.lta.org.uk/fan-zone/gb-teams/davis-cup/news/2026/great-britain-vs-ecuador-results-and-updates/)
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.
1123 articles published
