Due to the absence of their two leading singles competitors, Hubert Hurkacz and Kamil Majchrzak, Pieczkowski, Fery’s adversary, holds the highest ranking among Polish players.
This situation placed Britain as the clear favorite entering the contest, drawing parallels to a top-tier soccer club facing a lower-league team in a cup competition.
However, team captain Leon Smith cautioned against overconfidence. This proved accurate as Norrie encountered significant difficulty in his match against Berkieta, a 19-year-old player ranked 511 places below him.
Norrie immediately found himself under pressure, having to defend against two break points in his initial service game.
A challenging set ensued, with neither player able to create further break point opportunities, leading to a tie-break forced by the Polish player.
Norrie managed to save two set points before squandering three of his own in an error-filled tie-break, but a double fault from Berkieta, followed by Norrie’s precise serve, secured the first set for the 30-year-old.
In the second set, Norrie leveraged his experience as Berkieta’s confidence and performance waned. An early break of serve was sufficient for Norrie to clinch victory and secure Britain’s first point in the overall competition.
A bicep injury and illness had kept Norrie, a former top-10 player, from participating in the Davis Cup since the quarter-final match against Serbia in 2023.
Despite having already competed in 22 tournaments this year, he expressed that representing his country remains “one of my favorite weeks” of the year.
Following a 3-2 defeat against Japan in the initial round of this year’s Davis Cup, Britain must secure a victory in this contest to maintain their position among the elite teams. A loss would necessitate a February play-off, potentially resulting in relegation to World Group 2.
