Reasons To Be Cheerful?

So, it was an even bigger "must-win", and "should-win", tie than team GB's previous few Davis Cup match-ups; but this time they obliged. Britain is safe from relegation - for now - to the lowest possible tier of the competition. With a perfect 5-0 win last weekend, they're free to continue playing at the dizzying heights of Euro-Africa Zone Group Two. If things go well, they could play, at the end of next year, for promotion to Euro-Africa Zone Group One.
Which means it's hardly a cause for spectacular celebration. Accordingly, the festivities were a little subdued - from the team and the crowd - as Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski secured the tie victory by winning the doubles rubber on Saturday. They knew they'd done what they had to do, hopefully part of a building block.
With no south stand or additional rows to the east stand - those temporary seats are taken away at the end of the Aegon International - the remaining seating never looked more than sixty percent full, and that was probably a generous estimation. BBC local radio was told that around 2000 of the 5000 available tickets had been sold.
Considering July weather is as unpredictable as the rest of the year in Britain, the weather was the same as the last Davis Cup tie to be held in Eastbourne (July 2006) - far hotter than the June tournament's been in the last twenty years. In '06 I was in the east stand, and a slight lack of sun lotion on my wrist led to my first sunburning in Britain since I was a child! This time I was in the west stand, and later in the afternoon, given all the empty seats, was able to move up into the shade.
The "tennis village" of shops also wasn't as large in terms of number of stalls as during the Aegon International, but there was still some decent memorabilia on sale.
So, a pretty good weekend for all who attended. And the few Turkish supporters, who were barely visible in the crowd, probably didn't have too many expectations of a tie win. Though they might have harboured realistic hopes Turkish no. 1 Marsel Ilhan would beat James Ward in the second rubber. Although he'd lost to Ward in two close matches earlier this year, he's ranked 200 places higher than the Brit, and recently qualified for Wimbledon and reached the second round. But Ward showed some of the great form that saw him beat Feliciano Lopez and Rainer Schuettler at Eastbourne three weeks before.
The criticism of British tennis goes on, of course, and justifiably. Brit Richard Bloomfield, who had a terrific run to the semi-finals of the ATP tournament in Newport last week, has joined the seemingly endless number of people to question the LTA's running of the British game.
But Ward, Fleming, Skupski and Jamie Baker look like impressive late bloomers, albeit at a modest level. It was particularly cheering to see Baker play his first Davis Cup since the World Group match against Argentina in early 2008. Although Britain lost the tie, Baker impressed with his wholly unexpected victory in the dead rubber, defeating Agustin Calleri on clay in Buenos Aires. But his progress was shockingly derailed by life-threatening illness. Now thankfully recovered, he's risen back up from 1000 in the world to just outside the top 250.
Right now, and in the immediate future, Britain of course need Andy Murray if they're to do anything noteworthy in the Davis Cup. And there's no chance of being back in the World Group before 2013. But at least there are tiny signs of some back-up for Murray in big ties, providing he plays.