Neal Skupski and Dan Evans refused to hit the panic button on thrilling Davis Cup return

With the score at 1-1 after the singles, Great Britain’s place in the round of 16 in Malaga in November rested on Evans and Skupski facing Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Evans recovered from three match points on his serve at 4-5 while Skupski had to defend just one match point while serving at 5-6. Both men held on to win 1-6, 7-6, 7-6.

Despite the nail-biting nature of the match, Skupski said, “There was no panic. We have just moved on to the next point. I knew if we somehow pulled this game off, the momentum was going to shift in our favor.

Evans proved himself Britain’s man of the hour after also recovering from a set down in the first singles match to beat Arthur Fils in front of a partisan crowd of 13,000 at the AO Arena in Manchester.

Afterwards, Evans said: “Singles is singles and I feel comfortable on that court, but doubles was chaos. I kept telling Neal “we have a chance, we have a chance” and we both kept going. We stayed together.

“The Davis Cup is the reason I played tennis in the first place. I remember watching the Birmingham games, which finished late on a Sunday evening. It was really my first introduction to professional tennis.

“So it’s emotional. You want to be with these guys in the final. This is a very proud moment for me and for the team.