British players are praising captain Leon Smith's leadership during the Davis Cup final, after Great Britain defeated Belgium for its first title win since 1936.
Smith was named the country's newest captain in July 2010, replacing John Lloyd. Smith then beat Turkey in the Group II Europe/Africa Relegation Play-off. It took them four years to reach the World Group stage, but since Smith was appointed, the team has gone 12-2.
This year, Britain beat the United States, France, Australia and Belgium on its way to the title.
"He keeps the team really relaxed, he doesn't seem to have any sort of ego and he can make fun of himself," Dominic Inglot told *BBC*, "And you feel like every member of the team is equally important. As a player you want to play for someone like that—someone who really treasures your input no matter if it's on the bench or on the court."
Andy Murray played and won all of his 11 of his matches this year in Davis Cup action. Smith coached Murray from when he was 11 to 15 years old, and is closely tied to both the Scot and his brother, Jamie.
"You have to sell your case to the players," Smith said. "And for me that meant doing a lot more preparation for each tie. That meant scouting the opponents to make sure that every detail was accounted for. We had to try and do something with the ranking deficits we were up against. You've got quite a lot of practice sessions in a week. You've got time on your hands with two sessions a day, every day, so rather than just hit balls we thought let's make sure we try and coach them."