Andy Murray and Great Britain team-mates reassured over Davis Cup final security

He was also the first to win Olympic gold since 1908.

Betway signed a toe-in-the-water deal to sponsor the Fed Cup final in Prague this year, and has now expanded its agreement to cover both the women’s Fed Cup competition and the men’s Davis Cup across three years.

And Murray’s personal commitment to his team’s success can not not be overstated.

Politics intruded on the Davis Cup that year, with Moscow ordering the Soviet Union team not to play a semifinal against Chile in protest of Augusto Pinochet’s military junta.

Where is this year’s final taking place? .

Such gambles will not be taken in Ghent this weekend though, with the nation bidding for their first Davis Cup title for 79 years. Murray has won both of his head-to-head clashes with Belgium’s No 1 Goffin although this will be their first meeting on clay.

When Leon Smith took over as Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain in 2010, to say he had a job on his hands was something of an understatement.

But the world doubles No. 7 is unbeaten in three Davis Cup ties with his brother Andy – and the two thrilling wins over the French and Australians this year. They have a fantastic security team here. Murray reckoned he had won it with one and a half points. We just listened to all of the right people.

ANDY MURRAY last night claimed Great Britain are “comfortable” playing the Davis Cup Final in Belgium this weekend.

“I think it’s not for me to give people advice on security”, Murray said.

Whoever Belgium play in the doubles rubber, with Steve Darcis and Ruben Bemelmans the favourites, it is tough to make a case for the hosts winning it.

“It’s a personal decision people have to make but I have no second thoughts about what we’re doing and going on with the event with everything I’ve seen today”.

“It’s nice to have someone like him in the team that can play singles, doubles, singles if he had to”.

The team is now practising in earnest, so just what are the playing conditions? I think we’ll have 1,300 travelling supporters – 10% of the allocation. That changes the way the court plays and the way the ball travels through the air. Judy Murray, mother to Andy and his brother Jamie, with whom he will likely play a crucial doubles match on Saturday, alluded to the proximity of the location to Molenbeek. This year 126 nations entered the competition, making it the world’s largest annual global tennis competition in sport.

The Great Britain team starts and ends with Andy Murray. So we try to focus on the job and we will be ready on Friday. “But I liked it yesterday”.

This was the first time in the competition’s history that all four of the nominated singles players – Italy’s Andrea Gaudenzi and Davide Sanguinetti and Sweden’s Magnus Norman and Magnus Gustafsson – were ranked outside the top 30. It would be well-deserved, as well.

“I’ve been saying the last few days, a lot of the ties you think everything’s fine and the security you don’t necessarily need it”, he said. But this is a bit different. “It would be big for everyone involved, for sure”.

“As catastrophic a result as it was for John Lloyd and his British team, Lithuania played well that weekend”.

– 12th meeting between Belgium and Great Britain.