Murray's Davis Cup attitude will not hurt us – Smith

The British No 1 again chose to skip this weekend's tie with Turkey having also missed the defeat by Lithuania in March, which put the team in danger of being relegated to the lowest tier of the competition.

They guaranteed they would avoid that humiliation at the weekend as Britain completed a 5-0 whitewash at Eastbourne's Devonshire Park, preserving their status in Europe/Africa Zone Group II.

World No 4 Murray has continued his policy of choosing whether to play on a tie-by-tie basis despite the appointment of his former coach Smith.

"It's no problem," said the Scot. "When he wants to come back in the team of course we'll love that because he's one of the world's best players and any team in the world would love to have Andy Murray in it.

"We're all friends with Andy Murray, we've all got close relationships with him, and that positivity is something that we enjoy. Everyone is working together to make things better."

That position was backed up by Colin Fleming, who experienced victory in the competition for the first time on Saturday alongside Ken Skupski in the doubles rubber after being part of losses to Lithuania and Ukraine.

He said: "There's just a real enjoyment in playing Davis Cup and winning in Davis Cup. We won our doubles in the last tie but winning an individual match doesn't even compare to an overall team win. The guys are loving it.

"It's a new experience for all of us. We'd love to have Andy here, and Andy will be delighted that the team's won as well, but four guys came down here and we were good enough to win."

In justifying his decision to miss the ties, Murray said putting the responsibility on other players' shoulders would give them the chance to gain confidence and experience at winning matches.

British players have frequently been guilty of not rising to the occasion against opponents they had a chance of beating, but that has certainly not been the case this weekend, with James Ward beating a player in Marsel Ilhan who is ranked almost 200 places above him.

And Smith acknowledged there is a certain truth in Murray's reasoning, even if he would prefer the 23-year-old to be part of the team.

"Of course they now go away with great confidence from winning in what is a pressure situation," he said of Ward and Jamie Baker, who set Britain on the way to victory with a thumping win in the opening singles match.

"Importantly they can build on that for the rest of the year, so of course it has its positives in that way."

Smith will now concentrate on his other role as head of men's tennis for the Lawn Tennis Association until Britain's next Davis Cup tie in March, where they will look to give themselves a chance of exiting Group II in the right direction.

After the doom and gloom of Vilnius and the recriminations that followed, including the resignation of former captain John Lloyd, there is now a sense of cautious optimism around men's tennis in Britain.

Junior success at Wimbledon has been followed this week by the thrashing of Turkey and a shock semi-final appearance for Richard Bloomfield at the ATP World Tour event in Rhode Island.

Leading 3-0 on Saturday, Baker promptly made it 4-0 to Britain yesterday with a

6-3 6-2 victory over Davis Cup debutant Tuna Altuna.

Ward then completed a 5-0 whitewash in emphatic fashion with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Ergun Zorlu, who has lost all three of his matches in straight sets.

The Londoner raced into a 5-0 lead but then appeared to let his concentration slip.