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Ward seals British whitewash

Leon Smith enjoyed a successful start to his Davis Cup captaincy © Getty Images

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James Ward beat Ergun Zorlu in straight sets to seal an emphatic whitewash for Great Britain in their Davis Cup tie against Turkey.

Although both matches were dead rubbers after Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski had won their doubles match on Saturday to seal the tie and avoid a humiliating drop into the bottom tier of the competition, Leon Smith's team will take a huge confidence boost from a convincing 5-0 victory in which the British team dropped just one set in five matches.

Ward needed less than an hour to wrap up an impressive 6-1 6-3 victory at Eastbourne. He raced to a 5-0 lead in the opening set, before Zorlu finally held his serve to avoid a bagel. The second set scoreline was closer, but Ward broke in the seventh game and grabbed a second break to seal the match when Zorlu double faulted on match point.

Earlier, British No. 3 Jamie Baker beat Tuna Altuna 6-3 6-2 to improve his Davis Cup singles record to three wins from six rubbers. Baker was broken early in the opening set and trailed 1-3, but won seven games on the bounce to seal the opening set and grab a 2-0 lead in the second.

Altuna, playing merely for pride in his Davis Cup debut, battled hard and pulled it back to 2-2 before Baker pulled away to wrap up a comfortable victory. Baker admitted he had found it difficult to find his rhythm at the start.

"It's been great, two wins, but a very different experience today from Friday," he said. "Everyone's been up for it for so long. To come out and lift myself, get my feet moving was a challenge, I struggled a bit at the start. It was the first live rubber and first best of five set match that I've won, so that's a great thing to get off my back."

With Britain securing their place in the Europe/Africa Zone Group II, Baker was positive that the result was a sign of things to come.

"We're obviously happy that we won, but we're also aware that we'd see ourselves as a better team, it's not a huge celebration, it's more a building block," he said. "Hopefully we'll be more confident and in a better position for March."

Smith, who enjoyed a successful start to his Davis Cup captaincy, praised the professionalism of both Ward and Baker in sealing the whitewash.

"I thought they both went out and were very professional, kept that professionalism we've had all week, and finished off well. I had every faith in them, they've all had some good experience, to get 5-0 is important to send a good message that if you prepare well and work hard you can get good results."

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