5th March 2209
I’m working with Roberto and he’s brilliant.”Josh Goodall will lead off Great Britain’s bid for a Davis Cup victory against Ukraine after being drawn to play Ilya Marchenko in tomorrow’s opening singles rubber at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow.
It will be the first time Goodall, the world No192 and the highest-ranked player on the GB team, has played Marchenko but he will be expected to beat the world No224. That match will be followed by Chris Eaton against Sergiy Stakovsky, Ukraine’s No1, in the Euro-Africa zone Group One tie. The Brit, ranked No383 in the world, faces a much tougher task against the No125.
Saturday’s doubles sees Ross Hutchins and Colin Fleming team up against Stakovsky and Sergei Bubka, the son of the great pole vaulter. Sunday’s singles will be the reverse of tomorrow’s, with Goodall again first up against Stakovsky.
Great Britain’s captain John Lloyd confirmed his four-man line-up today, with James Ward the man to miss out from the five who travelled to Glasgow.
Until recently, the Basingstoke-born Goodall might have crumbled under the weight of expectation, but sessions with the Lawn Tennis Association’s psychologist Roberto Forzoni have toughened him up. “Tennis hasn’t really been my problem. It’s been the mental side of my game,” Goodall said. “It’s only just recently that I’ve started to work on that and I feel that’s the key to my game now and that’s probably why I’m playing a lot better.
“I think I was putting too much pressure on myself. At the moment, it’s going well and I’m happy and positive about where I’m going. I’m working with a guy at the LTA – a guy called Roberto – and he’s brilliant.”
Asked how he feels he will respond being the number one player in the team in Andy Murray’s absence, Goodall said he was ready to be “thrown in at the deep end”.