Cameron Norrie ruled out of Great Britain’s Davis Cup qualifier with Ecuador after practice injury
Cameron Norrie has been withdrawn from Great Britain’s Davis Cup qualifying tie with Ecuador this weekend after feeling pain in his arm during a practice session, with a place in the eight-team Finals in November at stake. He will be replaced in Saturday’s singles by world number 95 Toby Samuel.
Great Britain have not reached the knockout stage of the competition since 2023 and enter the tie with an inexperienced squad after Jack Draper ended his season early and Jan Choinski and Jacob Fearnley were ruled out through injury. Captain Leon Smith said the decision to replace Norrie reflected a desire to manage his workload for the rest of the year. Neal Skupski remains in the team and Norrie will stay with the squad.
Samuel is set to make his Davis Cup debut against Andres Andrade in Saturday’s opening rubber, with British number one Arthur Fery scheduled to follow against Alvaro Guillen Meza. Both of Ecuador’s singles players are outside the world’s top 200, and Fery’s only previous appearance for Great Britain came in Poland last September.
Fery arrives in the tie having played on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in July and having lost in the first round of the US Open in August after reaching the Winston-Salem final in the build-up to that Grand Slam. He said: "I'm aware of the role I have as the number one player and I am representing my country, so there's always a little more responsibility," and added: "But at the same time I've been able to deal with high-pressure situations a lot of times this year and I feel like I've done a great job with them. Tomorrow isn't going to be any different to that. "I think there's no shying away from it - if I want to do great things in tennis and push on, be top 20 or top 10, I have to take this responsibility on. "I'm ready to do that and represent my country. It's something new but something that I feel comes with the player I'm becoming."
On Norrie’s withdrawal, Smith said: "He wasn't able to accelerate on the ball like he wanted to," and added: "It's nothing major, but there's still a lot of tennis to be played this year and with that in mind, we had to make the difficult decision to replace him." He also commented on the squad’s experience: "I'm not sure it concerns me, but it is obviously a factor. "Neal [Skupski] is in the team, Cam is staying with the team. I've had 16 years at this so I can hopefully help a little bit. "But you want them to experience this. You have to start somewhere and I have a lot of confidence in Arthur, Toby and our doubles team. "If they can put out the level of tennis we've seen over the course of the summer and before that, they'll give themselves a good opportunity."
Harry Wendelken, at a career-high world ranking of 175, was at the Copper Box as a practice partner and has been added to the team in Norrie’s absence. For Sunday’s doubles, world number one Henry Patten will pair with new US Open champion Neal Skupski, with two reverse singles scheduled to follow.
Great Britain reached this stage by beating Norway 4-0 in the first qualifying round in February, while Ecuador were notable winners against Australia in February and beat a British team containing Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski 3-2 on Wimbledon’s Court One in July 2000. The seven winners of this weekend’s qualifying ties will join three-time defending champions Italy in the final eight stage in Bologna from 24 to 29 November.
Coverage of Great Britain v Ecuador is scheduled from 13:00 BST on 19 September and from 12:00 BST on 20 September.