LONDON — Great Britain will chase a first Davis Cup Finals appearance since 2023 without Cameron Norrie this weekend, as the British number two was ruled out of the qualifier against Ecuador with an arm problem. World number 95 Toby Samuel will replace Norrie for Saturday's opening singles at the Copper Box, with qualification for November's eight-team Finals in Bologna on the line.
Norrie felt pain in his arm during a practice session and was unable to accelerate on the ball as he wanted. "He wasn't able to accelerate on the ball like he wanted to," Davis Cup captain Leon Smith told BBC Sport. "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." Samuel will make his Davis Cup debut against Andres Andrade in Saturday's first match, followed by British number one Arthur Fery against Alvaro Guillen Meza — both Ecuadorians ranked outside the world's top 200. British number seven Harry Wendelken, a career-high world number 175 who was on site as a practice partner, has been added to the squad, while world number one Henry Patten will partner new US Open champion Neal Skupski in Sunday's doubles before the reverse singles.
Smith will lead an inexperienced group with Jack Draper having ended his difficult season early and both Jan Choinski and Jacob Fearnley unavailable through injury. Fery's only previous appearance came in Poland last September, though he played on Wimbledon's Centre Court in a men's singles semi-final in July and reached the Winston-Salem final before a first-round exit at the US Open in August. "I'm not sure it concerns me, but it is obviously a factor," Smith said of the inexperience. "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." Fery added: "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. 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."
Great Britain beat Norway 4-0 in the first qualifying round in February and are trying to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2023. Ecuador arrive as underdogs but delivered a comprehensive upset of Australia in February, and have history on British soil after beating a team containing Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski 3-2 on Wimbledon's Court One in July 2000. Coverage of the tie begins at 13:00 BST on 19 September and 12:00 BST on 20 September.
"We've missed not being at that stage and it's up to us now to take that opportunity," Smith added. "We have a good opportunity. It's never ever straightforward, despite what people might look at in the rankings - just ask Australia what happened in February. We're on it, we've got a good team, and we'd be thrilled to get to the finals." The seven winners from this weekend's qualifying ties will join three-time defending champions Italy in the Final 8 in Bologna from 24 to 29 November.