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Davis Cup 2025: Four questions that will decide Great Britain’s qualifier against Japan
The Lexus GB Davis Cup team are gearing up for their first round qualifier against Japan this weekend with the winning side progressing to September’s second round matches before the Finals.
The Brits have a tough challenge on their hands against a strong Japanese team, but this young squad will be more than ready for the challenge come Friday.
Ahead of the tie, we break down our four biggest questions that could determine who comes out on top in Miki.
How will GB’s new-look side match up with the experienced Japanese team?
There’s been a fair bit of change to the Lexus GB Davis Cup team that we last saw competing in Manchester back in September.
British No.1 Jack Draper is out as he recovers from a hip injury, Cam Norrie has withdrawn from the team and there’s no Dan Evans this time around.
It has resulted in a new-look side with a lot to be excited about. First, Britain’s rising star Jacob Fearnley has been picked for his first Davis Cup tie coming off a very impressive eight month start to his professional career – now coming in as Britain’s highest ranked player in the tie at world No.77.
Billy Harris made a winning start to his Davis Cup career against Finland in Manchester and is getting more and more experience competing with top-level opponents on a weekly basis.
This will also be the first Davis Cup tie for 28-year-old Jan Choinski, who continues to pick up good results on the ATP Challenger Tour and will now be hoping to make that next step at this point in his career.
The fresh new GB team is in stark contrast to a Japanese squad which has a bunch of experience in this competition.
Japan has three singles players all ranked inside the top 120 and all with 10 or more Davis Cup ties to their name - Yoshito Nishioka, Taro Daniel and former top five star Kei Nishikori. All three players have picked up significant wins for their nation in the past and were pivotal in their journey back to the Finals Qualifiers this year.
This tie is a fantastic opportunity for these British players to prove that they are ready to become permanent fixtures in the team and a win against a strong Japanese team would be a statement to both fans and captain Leon Smith.
Can Jacob Fearnley replicate Australian Open form?
As we’ve already mentioned, Fearnley comes into the Lexus GB team as the rising star on the men’s side of the game.
The 23-year-old graduated from Texas Christian University in the summer of last year and since then has played lights out tennis through the opening months of his professional career.
A maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in his first event at the Rothesay Open Nottingham was swiftly followed by another three trophies and a debut inside the top 100 before the end of the year.
His stellar rise gave the British star main draw entry into the Australian Open for the first time, where he showed his quality on the big stage. Fearnley used his experience from a first Grand Slam win in the summer to beat Nick Kyrgios on the Kia Arena, followed by promising French talent Arthur Cazaux before losing out to eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev in the third round.
Fearnley plays with a level of fearlessness that has allowed him to bring his A-game to every match on every stage – even when facing 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic on Centre Court in SW19 where he managed to take a set in his first major tournament.
Ahead of his Davis Cup debut, fans will be excited to see if he can keep up this level and like another fellow Scot in the past, Andy Murray, lead this British team into the next round.
Is Kei Nishikori set to extend his impressive Davis Cup record?
A former world No.4 and US Open runner-up, 35-year-old Nishikori has long been featured as one of the top players on tour.
However, over recent years, injuries have plagued his career and have prevented him from returning to his previous heights.
In 2025 though, it looks like that’s all behind him and the 12-time ATP title-winner seems to have his confidence back. He closed out last year with a quarter-final appearance at the ATP 500 Tokyo and won a Challenger event in Helsinki, before then starting this season with an ATP 250 final in Hong Kong.
What’s perhaps the biggest danger for the British team however is Nishikori’s record in Davis Cup matches. The Japanese star has played a combined 24 singles and doubles rubbers and won 21 – one of his only losses coming against Murray in 2016.
Last year’s World Group match against Colombia was his first Davis Cup tie in eight years and now having come back fitter and playing his best tennis in years, Nishikori will no doubt be ready to improve on those numbers. The question is – can the Brits stop him?
Can Neal Skupski recapture Davis Cup performances?
Skupski has experienced all the highs and lows that come with the Davis Cup.
In his 14 ties, the 35-year-old helped take Great Britain to the semi-finals in 2019, won a crucial rubber in 2021 to book a quarter-final spot and most recently, won a three-set epic in 2023 to see his side qualify for the Davis Cup Final 8.
Despite beating the Canadian doubles team last year in Manchester, the Liverpool-native will have been disappointed to have lost against Finland and Argentina and will be looking to get back to winning ways in Japan.
Skupski will be the most experienced member of the GB team and will be the player many of the team look to for advice and guidance.
The most likely doubles partnership on paper will be Skupski and Joe Salisbury, who have also teamed up on the ATP Tour this season. After a mixed first couple of matches in Australia, the two former world No.1s will be searching for the kind of performances that has seen them win two ATP titles together in the past as well.
With doubles often being the deciding rubber in these ties and with the new players coming in for the singles, their partnership could be more important than ever. Having a doubles specialist next to him and one he knows so well, could be the key to Skupski re-discovering the Davis Cup magic from that 2023 run in Manchester.
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