Davis Cup 2023: Colombia v Great Britain - GB may have to win 'ugly' in tricky qualifier

Great Britain were eliminated successful the radical stages of past year's Finals successful Glasgow

Dan Evans says it does not substance if Great Britain person to triumph "ugly" successful their challenging Davis Cup qualifying lucifer against Colombia successful Bogota.

"It's astir getting the triumph here. It doesn't substance how, if it's beauteous oregon ugly," said British fig 2 Evans.

"Just get a constituent connected the committee and hopefully we tin win."

Evans, Cameron Norrie, Jack Draper, Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury person been selected for 10-time winners GB, who volition instrumentality to the clay connected Friday and Saturday astatine the Pueblo Viejo Country Club.

• Evans to play doubles for GB for archetypal time
• Russell Fuller: GB look 'most analyzable tie' successful Colombia
• Wimbledon & LTA look determination connected Russian and Belarusian subordinate ban

Victory would corroborate them arsenic 1 of the 16 radical signifier nations, from which 8 teams advancement to November's Finals successful Malaga.

Captain Smith said the travel to Colombia was "without uncertainty the astir analyzable necktie we could person got" - and the pressureless balls required to header with the altitude topped the reasons for the squad arriving a week aboriginal to prepare.

"The shot is astir apt the main thing," Smith said connected Thursday. "Using a pressureless shot is thing the players astir apt won't usage immoderate different clip successful the year."

According to Skupski, "it was hard to breathe" for the archetypal mates of days astatine altitude.

But helium added the aboriginal accomplishment had fixed the players "the champion imaginable accidental to adapt", with the likes of British fig 1 Norrie travelling consecutive from the Australian Open successful Melbourne.

Dan Evans volition play Davis Cup doubles for Great Britain for the archetypal time

Evans, portion of GB's astir caller triumph successful 2015, faces a peculiarly aggravated mates of days arsenic helium contests 2 singles matches and 1 doubles rubber, having said past twelvemonth that it was "a spot insulting" that helium had not antecedently been selected for the latter.

World fig 30 Evans gets the enactment nether mode connected Friday erstwhile helium plays the 253rd-ranked Nicolas Mejia, followed by Norrie's lucifer against Nicolas Barrientos.

On Saturday, Evans partners Skupski against erstwhile satellite fig 1 doubles brace Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, earlier returning to enactment against Barrientos pursuing Norrie's necktie with Mejia.

Conditions aside, the visitors are by acold the stronger broadside connected paper, with Colombia's lone singles subordinate successful the apical 250 - fig 81 Daniel Elahi Galan - withdrawing due to the fact that of injury.

Follow sum of Great Britain's qualifying lucifer connected the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website and app from 20:00 GMT connected Friday and 17:00 connected Saturday.

• Live scores, results and bid of play
• Alerts: Get tennis quality sent to your phone

How does the Davis Cup work?

Dubbed the 'men's World Cup of tennis', a grounds 155 nations entered this year's Davis Cup, with matches contested crossed 60 countries.

Great Britain's necktie against Colombia is 1 of 11 qualifying matches taking spot this week.

The matches are played arsenic best-of-five rubbers, with each rubber decided successful a best-of-three sets format.

The 12 qualifiers volition beforehand to the radical stage, to beryllium held betwixt 12-17 September crossed 4 venues.

They volition beryllium joined by past year's winners Canada and runners-up Australia, positive 2 wildcard entries successful Italy and Spain.

The 16 teams are divided into 4 groups, with the apical 2 from each advancing to the knockout Finals successful Malaga from 21-26 November.