Great Britain have been drawn to play Novak Djokovic’s Serbia in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup in Malaga.
The knockout stage of the competition, which GB last won in 2015, will be played between 21 and 26 November.
Dan Evans and Neal Skupski had to save four match points to beat France in a decisive doubles match in Manchester on Sunday to qualify for the last eight.
Djokovic, who won with Serbia in 2010, says the competition is his top priority for the rest of the season.
But the ties will be the best-of-three matches, and Serbia do not have any other singles players in the top 30.
“We’ve topped this group so we expect to get a kinder draw in the quarter-finals but it’s not panned out that way,” Great Britain captain Leon Smith told BBC Sport.
“But you know what, we deserve to be there – and we’ve got a chance against anyone. It doesn’t matter if Novak plays for Serbia, or anything else. You’ve got to win two [singles] rubbers and a doubles and that’s what we’ve proved to be good at.”
The winners will play either Italy or the Netherlands in the semi-finals, with Italy able to call on world number seven Jannik Sinner and top-20 player Lorenzo Musetti.
Hosts Spain will be absent from the Final Eight after failing to make it out of Group C, while 32-time champions the United States also miss out after losing to Finland in their final Group D tie.
In the top half of the draw, Canada will continue their title defence against the Finns, who are making their debut in the quarter-finals, while last year’s runners-up Australia will play the Czech Republic.
Will GB make changes to team?
The make-up of the Great Britain team for Malaga could prove one of Smith’s trickier selections.
The schedule for the week is yet to be confirmed but it seems more than likely GB’s quarter-final will be played on the Thursday to allow 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Djokovic more time to recover from the previous week’s ATP Finals in Turin.
This means that were GB to make it to Sunday’s final, they would have to play three ties in four days. Incredible though Evans was in winning two matches stretching over nearly five hours in Manchester on Sunday, asking him repeatedly to play two matches a day in such a small timeframe would seem both unrealistic and unwise.
His partnership with Skupski is very much the best doubles pairing of the team Smith selected for the group stage. Skupski and Andy Murray have never played together on tour or in Davis Cup, and Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper…
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