Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

John McEnroe is the man who ruined Britain”s hopes of winning the Davis Cup the  last time a team from the United Kingdom reached the final in 1978, believes Andy Murray and Co now have an 80 per cent chance of victory this year.

Murray”s emphatic 6-1, 6-0 win over Belgium”s leading player David Goffin in last week”s BNP Paribas Masters in Paris would certainly appear to back up McEnroe”s view. However the Belgians will have home advantage as the Flanders Expo in Ghent and Britain”s two prospective second choice singles players, James Ward and Kyle Edmund have suffered some indifferent form recently.

Nevertheless McEnroe told The Tennis Podcast: “To me Great Britain should win. It”s set up for them. There will be pressure for Murray, but the way he handled it against Australia, he”ll handle it again and win two singles, and it would be nice if he did it again with his brother.

“Great Britain are (sic) definitely the favorites. It”s more difficult on the road, but I pick Great Britain. Even in the second singles they have an outside shot. They should win this tie eight out of 10 times. I don”t want to put any pressure on but they should win that match!”

Both Ward and Edmund won their opening matches yesterday at the Copa Fila Challenger tournament in Buenos Aires, beating a pair of South American clay-court specialists; Ward beating Bolivia”s Hugo Dellein 2-6,6-3,6-3 while Edmund won 6-2,3-6,6-3 against Brazil”s Andre Ghem.

McEnroe distinctly remembers the American win over the Brits at Mission Hills Country Club, Rancho Mirage in the Californian desert even though he was still a teenager at the time.

“It was the only time that I had success in Palm Springs in my whole career,” said McEnroe who twice played the event  now staged in Indian Wells, losing in second round both times. “I didn”t like the dryness. But I was in a zone when I played John Lloyd and Buster Mottram. I look back and wish everything in my career had been that easy as I only lost ten games in two matches.”

Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.