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Evans crumbles under the pressure in Vilnius

James Ward was beaten in straight sets by Lithuanian No. 1 Ricardas Berankis © Getty Images

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Sunday's Davis Cup gallery

Lithuania 3-2 Great Britain

Britain slumped to their fifth straight Davis Cup defeat after Dan Evans lost the deciding rubber in five sets to Laurynas Grigelis as they fell 3-2 to Lithuania.

Britain were 2-1 up going into the final day, but the pressure was on Evans to win following James Ward's straight-sets defeat to Ricardas Berankis to level the tie at 2-2.

Evans started strongly, winning a a first-set tie break, but the pressure was too much and the vocal home support spurred the teenage Grigelis on, and he secured a historic victory for his country, 6-7 7-5 6-0 2-6 6-4.

"I didn't think he could play that good for five sets, but he did," said Evans. "He beat me in a fifth set and played that bit better than me throughout the match."

The defeat meant British captain John Lloyd earned the unenviable record of becoming the first British Davis Cup captain in 110 years to lose five successive ties. Britain will now face Turkey in a relegation play-off in the summer as they attempt to avoid a third relegation in as many years following their demotion from the world group two years ago.

Ward got his Davis Cup debut off to a flying start, beating Lithuanian No. 2 Laurynas Grigelis in straight sets on Friday to put Britain 1-0 up. However, Berankis beat Evans in five sets to level the scores before British doubles pair Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski secured a valuable win on Saturday.

But Berankis, ranked 198th in the world, beat Ward 7-6 6-3 6-4 to take the tie to the final rubber, where Evans, ranked 252th in the world needed to beat Grigelis, ranked over 250 places below him at 521.

Ward started strongly, but was unable to break Berankis and the opening set went to a tie-break, which was won by Berankis in front of a vocal home crowd. After three tight sets, Berankis took the victory.

However, despite the defeat, Ward enjoyed the experience in Vilnius. "It's been a great experience," he said. "I started off with a win, the perfect start, I played really well, and I think I played well today. I'm glad to always play for my country, it's always enjoyable we've had a great team spirit, and I'll look forward to playing again if I'm picked."

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