Great Britain Davis Cup captain Leon Smith heaped praise on Dan Evans after he won the deciding rubber against Slovakia.
GB captain revels in thrilling victory over Slovakia
Great Britain Davis Cup captain Leon Smith heaped praise on Dan Evans after the British number five won the deciding rubber of a dramatic Davis Cup tie against Slovakia on Sunday.
With Andy Murray training in Florida, the hosts were second favourites for the Europe/Africa Zone Group I clash at Glasgow's Braehead Arena.
But world number 276 Evans inspired a 3-2 victory by winning both his singles rubbers to add to Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins' doubles victory.
Evans raced through the first two sets of his all-important last rubber with Martin Klizan before dropping the next two, only to come through again in the last set for a thrilling victory.
"I'm so, so proud of him," Smith said of Evans' performance over the weekend.
"Friday was amazing, he played great, but it's not easy to come out and be the one to try to get through the fifth match. He had so much adrenaline today, he nailed all the tactics perfectly.
Smart
"His opponent wasn't playing as well at the start and I remember Dan saying to me he would come into his game at some point and he did, right at the wrong time at the end of the third, and then he didn't really miss at all.
"The momentum in a best-of-five goes up and down a bit like a rollercoaster. Klizan got a bit of a foothold and it just took Dan to dip a little bit for Klizan to start dictating the points.
"That was why it was so good what Dan did at the start of the fifth to really stop, have a clear head and realise there was one set to go and that if he could go back to what he did at the start he could take control of the points, and he did it really well."
The victory was all the more remarkable as Evans had been involved in just two Davis Cup ties prior to the clash with Slovakia, losing deciding rubbers against Poland in 2009 and Lithuania two years ago.
Evans said: "Leon has to take quite a bit of credit, he kept me calm in the chair, I didn't really snap once throughout the whole weekend, which probably would have been odds-on to happen at the start.
"I was enjoying it because it was a good match. Both players were playing good tennis and there's nothing better when everybody in the building, bar a few, is behind you.
"I'm really pleased with how the whole week went. I've never been on a team that's been as loud as that just behind the court and that helped a lot. Davis Cup's different, everybody unites together in situations like that."
