Murray ready to atone against British-based Croatian hopeful

Croatia captain Zeljko Krajan sprang a surprise at the draw in Umag by naming 16-year-old Borna Coric as his No 2 singles player.

That means the teenager, who has a British coach and trains part-time in London, finds himself up against the Wimbledon champion for a career-first best-of-five-sets match.

Coric is regarded as one of the sport’s brightest young talents and last weekend won the junior title at the US Open, nine years after Murray lifted the same trophy.

Murray said: “I haven’t seen Coric play before, but plenty of our guys have.

“He’s very young and is very inexperienced at this level, but I’ll be ready for him. I’m looking forward to getting out on the court.”

For the world No 3, it will be a good chance to get the US Open out of his system a week after his disappointing quarter-final defeat by Stanislas Wawrinka.

As expected, Dan Evans was picked as Britain’s No 2 player by captain Leon Smith following his terrific run to the third round in New York.

The 23-year-old is at a new career-high ranking of 149 and will play today’s second singles rubber against Croatian No 1 Ivan Dodig, ranked 35.

Smith picked both Evans and British No 3 James Ward in his original team.

But, having assessed both on clay in Umag this week, Smith has given Evans the nod and brought in Sheffield’s Jonny Marray for Ward.

Evans said: “I have really enjoyed being around the other guys and the turnaround after the 
US Open has been very quick so I haven’t really had time to think about what happened there.

“Even though clay isn’t my best surface, I’m excited to get out there again and Davis Cup usually brings the best out in me.”

Murray, playing in his first Davis Cup tie for two years, has put himself forward to play in the doubles with Colin Fleming, which means he is scheduled to play on all three days.