Great Britain lose Davis Cup tie to Lithuania as Evans crumbles under pressure

GREAT Britain now face yet another Davis Cup relegation play-off as Dan Evans could not overcome Lithuanian Laurynas Grigelis, who is ranked 269 places below him, in their Europe/Africa Zone group II clash in Vilnius.

 
TOO MUCH PRESSURE: Dan Evans loses the decisive rubber to Lithuania's Laurynas Grigelis (Getty Images)

The teenager was beaten by Grigelis in five sets 6-7, 7-5, 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 after carrying British hopes squarely on his shoulders thanks to Jamie Ward's earlier loss to Ricardas Berankis to level the tie at 2-2.

Doubles pair Ken Skupski and Colin Fleming had put Britain in the driving seat after defeating Lithuania's Dovydas Sakinis and Lukas Mugevicius on Saturday but the pressure got the better of Evans and Ward in the final day's singles.

Great Britain will now face Turkey in the summer to avoid relegation to the lowest tier of the competition while Lithuania have earned themselves a tie with Ireland.

Evans started brightly in front of a passionate Lithuanian crowd and the 19-year-old took the opening set tie-break after saving two set points.

But Evans could not build on his lead and after surviving a wobble in the ninth game of the second set he had no such luck on his next service game, where Grigelis clinched the first break of the match to go 6-5 up.

The Lithuanian was now in inspired form and seemed incapable of hitting anything other than winners as he won eight games in a row to serve out the second set before Evans completely capitulated in the third handing it to him 6-0.

Evans regained his composure and dug deep in the fourth set to take it into a decider but the Lithuanian, who has never played an ATP Tour match before, was buoyed by his home crowd and used them to great effect to come through 6-4 in the fifth.

After losing his opening rubber to Berankis in five sets, Evans now has a Davis Cup record that reads played four, lost four.

Today's humiliating loss follows last year's defeat to Poland to drop into the Europe/Africa Zone group II and is part of an abysmal run of form which has seen Britain lose five consecutive ties under captain John Lloyd.