NOW BRITISH TENNIS knows how Joan Of Arc felt.
Leon Smith’s team is going down in flames in Rouen after Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans lost their singles matches in straight sets, leaving France one win away from some historical revenge.
It was in this city in 1431 that the English burnt French heroine Joan at the stake, roasted her corpse twice more and then threw the ashes into the River Seine.
At a venue just over a mile west of the execution site, Yannick Noah’s France will send Great Britain’s Davis Cup dreams up in smoke just as ruthlessly if they triumph in today’s doubles match.
Unless Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot beat Nicolas Mahut and Julien Benneteau, France will move into an unassailable 3-0 lead and tomorrow’s reverse singles matches will be rubbers as dead as poor Joan was when the English had finished with her.
And even if Murray and Inglot succeed, you would back Pouille, who beat Edmund 7-5 7-6 6-3, to make light work of Evans, whose first match on clay in nearly three years ended in 6-2 6-3 6-3 defeat by Jeremy Chardy.
It was Britain’s worst Davis Cup day since February 2008, when another Andy Murray-less team also failed to win a set in falling 2-0 behind to Argentina.
Captain Smith said: “We’ve had lots of good days and these ones don’t feel as good.
“It was always going to be a difficult match on clay.”
It was not the most tactful decision of Andy Murray’s career to publish on Facebook a photograph of himself practising on clay elsewhere in France at the very moment the tie started, despite the accompanying good luck message to the team.
Murray is working his way back from an elbow problem in Nice but the absence of last year’s French Open runner-up left Britain horribly exposed on this surface – British No 2 Evans had not played on “terre battue” since a qualifier at Roland Garros in May 2014.
Britain’s hopes rested more with Edmund, who likes clay, but he was not at his best.
The Brit recovered from a break down in the first two sets but faltered at the key moments, especially in the tiebreak when he was serving at 5-2 ahead.
Edmund said: “It’s easy to look back and say where I could have done better,some better choices and better execution.
“But when it counted I just didn’t get it done today.”
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Advice from Tim Henman from all very well, but Evans was always going to struggle and lost the first five games of his match.
The Brummie kept on battling but world No 68 Chardy justified his selection ahead of world No 30 Gilles Simon with a strong performance.
Evans said: “It’s almost a different sport when you can’t defend and have to be the aggressor.
“It was tough. He’s clearly played a lot on clay and I haven’t.”
The older Murray brother and Inglot will also be underdogs on the orange stuff against Mahut and Benneteau.
Smith said: “There’s always a way back. It would be wrong of us to say that’s us lost.
“That’s not the mentality we’ve built up over the years.
“We have to try and fight for everything. Hopefully Jamie and Dom can cause an upset and at least take it into the final day.”
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