Murray won both his singles matches in the 3-2 defeat by Austria on the grass of Wimbledon which relegated Britain from the world group and consigned them to the Europe/Africa zone where they could play countries such as Georgia, Latvia or Macedonia.

The Scot saw British number two Alex Bogdanovic lose both his singles and the doubles pairing of Jamie Murray and Ross Hutchins lose tamely in straight sets on Saturday.

And Murray believes the defeat had as much to do with a lack of fire as talent.

He said: "I have showed I love playing the Davis Cup. In both my matches I showed a lot of emotion and got the crowd involved.
"You have to do that in Davis Cup, especially when you have home ties, take advantage of the crowd. The guys in the other matches didn't get the crowd involved as much as I would have liked.

"When Alex went behind we didn't see any fist pumps. You don't really hear any 'C'mons' or any emotion.

"Even if you are breaking rackets I don't care, I want to see that you want to get the crowd involved and are desperate to win the match. It shows that you really care and are giving 110%.

"The crowd in my match was very good. In Alex's match it looked as if a lot of people left and the atmosphere was not very good."

It was something of an indictment of the interest in British tennis outside two weeks of Wimbledon in the summer that Court One was barely more than two thirds full on an afternoon of tension and drama which came just two weeks after Andy Murray was playing Roger Federer in the final of the US Open in New York.

Captain John Lloyd said: "I am very disappointed. We worked damned hard to get in the world group and now we are out of it."

He also insisted the team must now rally behind Murray, who he is confident will pledge his allegiance to playing in the side when the draw for the Europe/Africa zone is made on Tuesday.

It could mean longer journeys at inconvenient times for Murray's itinerary on the tour but Lloyd is optimistic of Murray's participation.
Lloyd added: "All our guys can work harder. Andy is a model when you see the strength he has now. The top guys break the spirit of their opponents and we have to have the same with all our guys.

"I'll call Andy up after the draw and I'm desperate for him to play. He's always played for me and he hasn't said he won't."