Smith looking for improvement

Leon Smith has challenged Britain's underachieving players to take their Davis Cup form out on to the ATP circuit.

This weekend's Europe/Africa Zone Group I tie ended in an expected 4-1 defeat by Belgium, with doubles pair Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins winning the hosts' only point in Glasgow, but that certainly did not tell the whole story.

Dan Evans showed his considerable talent in pushing world number 59 Olivier Rochus to four sets and Josh Goodall also impressed, and captain Smith said: "It's about getting together as a group, getting the guys focused on the day-to-day hard work and improving their rankings, which can get them into a higher level of tournaments."

Smith cannot rely on Andy Murray making himself available, and he wants to see his other players competing at a higher level on a week-to-week basis by the time they play their next Davis Cup match next spring.

"It was always going to be a very difficult tie but we're not far away from winning," he said.

Goodall lost the all important fourth rubber on Sunday 6-4 6-4 6-4 to 21-year-old David Goffin, who stepped in for the injured Rochus and won the tie for his country.

Goffin looks destined to climb much higher than his current career-high ranking of 112th, and the quality of his play had Goodall on the back foot for much of the tie.

The 26-year-old, from Basingstoke, has had a good run on the Futures circuit, the lowest level of the professional tour, and he now hopes to take that form onto the ATP Challenger Tour.

Goodall said: "I'm playing Futures too much at the moment. I'm winning them, which is good, and I have to do that to get my ranking back up, but I need to be playing these players week in, week out so it doesn't feel like such a shock to the system.

"Some of the serves that were coming back in that match are definitely not coming back in Futures. Once I get used to that I think I definitely can play at this level, I just need to be playing it more often."