Norrie & Fery put GB in control in Davis Cup tie

Great Britain took a big step towards next year's Davis Cup qualifiers as Cameron Norrie and Arthur Fery both won to give them a 2-0 lead over Poland.

World number 34 Norrie survived a scare against world number 545 Tomasz Berkieta to win his nation's opening World Group 1 match 7-6 (11-9) 6-4 in Gdynia, Poland.

Fery, ranked 227 in the world, then battled to a 6-4 6-2 victory over Olaf Pieczkowski, ranked 484.

The 23-year-old was making his Davis Cup debut after British number three Jacob Fearnley pulled out with a rib injury.

Britain need one more win on Saturday to reach February's first round and therefore have a shot at winning the title in 2026.

The world's number one doubles pair, Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash, will make their debut in Saturday's doubles, which will be followed by two reverse singles.

World number seven Jack Draper was unavailable for the tie because of an arm injury which has ruled him out of the remainder of the season.

With Poland missing their top two singles players - Hubert Hurkacz and Kamil Majchrzak - Fery's opponent Pieczkowski was their highest-ranked player.

That meant Britain were heavy favourites coming into the tie, which was compared to a Premier League team facing a non-league side in the FA Cup.

But captain Leon Smith warned that it was not necessarily that straightforward. And so it proved as Norrie made hard work of his match against 19-year-old Berkieta, ranked 511 places below him.

Norrie was immediately on the back foot, saving two break points in his opening service game before saving set points in a tense tie-break then sealing the set with a pinpoint serve.

The 30-year-old then showed his experience as his opponent ran out of steam and an early break of serve was enough for Norrie to secure victory and Britain's first point of the tie.

Fery was then thrown in at the deep end with the announcement of Fearnley's withdrawal made just one hour before the start of Friday's play.

But it was a mature performance from the Briton, who had the better of his 21-year-old opponent in the clutch moments, converting four of his 11 break points and minimising his errors to see out victory and put Britain in control of the tie.

Injury had seen Fery drop out of the top 400 in the world but a monumental win over top-20 player Alexander Bublik at Wimbledon and a first title on the Challenger tour - the rung below the ATP tour - helped him climb up the rankings.

Britain lost 3-2 in Japan in the first round of this year's Davis Cup, and so must win this tie to maintain their status among the elite. Defeat would mean a February play-off, which could result in relegation to World Group 2.