Goodall defeated in GB's Davis Cup opener

Posted: Friday 6th March 2009 | 16:55

JOSH Goodall has made a losing start to his Davis Cup career - crashing 7-6, 7-6, 7-6 to the Ukraine's Illya Marchenko in Glasgow.

NO GOODHALL: GB get off to a losing start in Davis Cup (Getty Images)

The 23-year-old from Basingstoke will be left cursing his luck, having taken the world number 224 to a tiebreak on three occasions, but failing to claim the set each time.

Great Britain will now face an uphill task in their bid to claim Euro-Africa Zone glory, having seen their hopes earlier dashed by the withdrawal of world number four Andy Murray.

"It was an extremely close match," he said. "But I gave myself to much to do in every single set.

"I went down in the first and managed to come back to a tie-break. I went down big in the second set - and again I had to come back. In the third set, I started to serve better and I was holding my own.

"I don't think I tactically got it right today out there and that has ultimately cost me."

The first set was a particularly tense encounter, but Goodall let the pressure get to him in the first tiebreak, as Marchenko ran out a 7-2 winner.

The inexperienced Brit then found himself 4-0 in the second set before performing a storming comeback in front of a partisan home crowd, to level the set at 6-6.

The second set tiebreak to-ed and fro-ed before the Ukrainian showed a more ruthless streak to claim in 7-5 and go into a seemingly unassailable lead.

Goodhall refused to give up in the third set and once more the two players could not be separated before Marchenko again took the tiebreak, and with it the match, 7-5.