Great Britain's defeat in Vilnius left them facing a play-off against Turkey to avoid relegation to the bottom tier of the Davis Cup
© Getty Images
Enlarge
"It is one of the most humiliating moments we have ever suffered," wrote Tim Meston in The Times after Britain's Davis Cup defeat to Lithuania. "The ecstatic Lithuanians are dancing up and down on the corpse of British tennis."
Great Britain, one of the founding members of the Davis Cup and nine-time champions, are on the verge of falling into the bottom tier of the competition, taking on teams that would make even Lithuania appear to be world beaters. They are just one defeat away from facing the likes of Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Malta and San Marino.
Just two seasons ago, Britain were amongst the best in the world, playing Argentina in the World Group. And now, after an unprecedented five consecutive Davis Cup defeats, John Lloyd's team have sunk to Group II of the Europe-Africa zone, on the brink of a third relegation in as many seasons.
Great Britain, the home of the All England Club, host of the most famous tennis tournament in the world, have sunk to an all-time low. The country that produced Fred Perry, Henry 'Bunny' Austin and Virginia Wade have just one male player ranked inside the top 150.
And while Britain return defeated from the dingy sportshall in Vilnius, their neighbours and fierce rivals France eased into the world group quarter-finals after a 4-1 victory over Germany. They will now take on defending champions Spain for a place in the semi-finals.
Like Britain, France has a proud tennis history. But that is where the similarities end. While the British team mull over a humiliating defeat to a nation not known for their tennis prowess, France are the ultimate example of where Britain have gone wrong.
In the days of the Les Quatre Mousquetaire, Henri Cochet, Rene Lacoste, Jacques Brugnon and Jean Borotra were to France what Perry and Austin were to Britain. And now France have, as coined by French paper L'Equipe, the New Musketeers: Gilles Simon, Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils.
France has 12 players in the top 100
© Getty Images
Enlarge
French players rarely dominate the headlines, and indeed the last Frenchman to win a Grand Slam was Yannick Noah at Roland Garros in 1983. But, despite this, they have an astonishing presence in the men's game.
There are no superstars in the French team, but they are undoubtedly one of the strongest teams in the world. The 2009 Australian Open finalist Tsonga is France's top player while Gael Monfils is a regular presence inside the top 20.
Tsonga and Monfils did the job for France against Germany by winning their opening singles rubbers to give France a 2-0 lead, and the doubles team of Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra, both good singles players in their own right, triumphed on Saturday to render the remaining reverse singles rubbers futile.
Llodra, only the French No. 10, recently won at the Marseille Open, and took the doubles title with Benneteau.
France have an astonishing 12 players in the world top 100, and 22 in the top 200. Compare that to Britain, where just Andy Murray and Alex Bogdanovic are ranked inside the top 200.
As a host nation of one of the four major tennis tournaments, dropping into the bottom tier of world tennis would be an unprecedented disaster and an utter humiliation.
While Britain would struggle to compete with sporting heavyweights like the United States, Australia and Russia, it is not beyond capabilities to be on a par with France. A nation with a similar tennis history, sporting heritage, budget and population, British tennis should be pitting itself against France, not Andorra.
© ESPN EMEA Ltd
Feeds: Jo Carter
Jo Carter
Jo Carter is an assistant editor of ESPN.co.uk
