"I urge those coming on Friday and Sunday to empty the tank. You see it at the French Open, it's like a football crowd. It makes a difference at the end of a long day.

British captain Leon Smith

British fans have been urged to act "like a football crowd" to push their Davis Cup team towards the knockout stage of the men's team competition.

Britain play Argentina in Manchester on Friday and Canada on Sunday, as they look to progress from the group stage.

On Wednesday, they won 2-1 in their opening tie against Finland.

But, in a round-robin format where the margins are tight, Britain could be left to rue not being able to clinch a clean sweep in the best-of-three contest.

After singles wins for Dan Evans and Billy Harris, Evans and Neal Skupski were narrowly beaten in the deciding doubles by Finnish pair Harri Heliovaara and Otto Virtanen.

The atmosphere among a crowd of just over 6,000 - in an arena which will have a maximum capacity of 15,000 this week - was muted at times during the doubles.

"I urge those coming on Friday and Sunday to empty the tank," said British captain Leon Smith.

"You see it at the French Open, it's like a football crowd. It makes a difference at the end of a long day.

"It was really quiet out there and we have to make the most of that home advantage."

During the doubles match Evans often attempted to whip up the crowd, which was understandably sparse given the midweek slot in school term time.

Smith said he had emphasised to his players how important starting with a 3-0 win would be, given they eventually scraped through last year on the back of a trio of 2-1 victories.

"We talked about it at 2-0. We can't fault [Dan and Neal's] efforts - they were bang on it. It was a shot here and there. But 3-0 would have been lovely," added Smith.

"It would have helped if the crowd could have played a bit more part in it, creating noise and energy the whole way."

Original article published 12.09.2024 on the BBC Sport website.

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