January 3 - Andy Murray (pictured) has defended his decision to make himself unavailable for Britain's Davis Cup tie against Lithuania, insisting he has "not abandoned" the team.


The British number one has announced he will skip the March tie to allow his young compatriots more international experience.

Murray denied, however, he has turned his back on Britain, pointing to the fact his top-four rivals have opted to skip the Davis Cup in the past.

He said: "It would be a bit unfair to single me out.

"Federer has missed Davis Cup matches, Rafa [Nadal] has missed Davis Cup matches, as has [Novak] Djokovic, [Pete] Sampras and [Andre] Agassi.

"A lot better players than me have missed Davis Cup matches.

"It's just because the team has struggled in the past few years that if I didn't play then there was a good chance that we were going to lose, whereas now we can still win.

"I don't think it's a case of me abandoning Great Britain.

"I've played a lot of matches for them."


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