Davis Cup: Terror fear may force Britain team to use private jet to travel to Belgium

Murray and rest of squad delay journey to Ghent for final in response to new travel advice regarding attacks threat

Andy Murray and his team-mates are expected to travel to Belgium for the Davis Cup final (Getty)

Terrorism fears have forced Britain’s Davis Cup team to delay their travel to Ghent for this week’s final against Belgium by 24 hours. Leon Smith and his team had been due to leave London on Sunday but changed their plans in the wake of the Foreign Office’s updated travel advice over the weekend.

Andy Murray and the rest of the British squad are now expected to travel to Belgium on Monday. There was an unconfirmed suggestion that they might fly by private jet for security reasons.

The final is due to start on Friday and for the moment preparations are going ahead. The Belgian government confirmed on Sunday that Brussels would remain at the highest level of terror alert, four, but that the rest of the country remained at level three, which is the same as Britain’s.

The threat level was raised in Brussels on Saturday because of a “serious and imminent threat” of a Paris-like attack. As a consequence the Foreign Office advised British travellers to the Belgian capital to “avoid places where there is a high concentration of people”.

Ghent’s football team played a home match on Friday and the city and has also been hosting a major six-day cycling event. Nevertheless, Ghent is only 35 miles from Brussels and the International Tennis Federation, which organises the Davis Cup, said over the weekend that it had “great concerns” about the terror threat. The sport’s governing body said it was “in constant contact with the relevant authorities”. The underground, schools and universities in Brussels will be closed on Monday while on Saturday Anderlecht’s match at Lokeren in Belgium’s top football flight was postponed, with the league saying “safety could not be guaranteed”.

The British team had planned to travel to Belgium on Sunday but would have been unable to train at the venue for the final – Ghent’s Expo Arena which has a capacity of 13,000 – until Monday, when the official practice sessions begin. They practised instead at Queen’s Club in London, while the Belgian team trained at Merelbeke, which is about 20 minutes from Ghent.

A spokesman for the Lawn Tennis Association said: “The team are very much looking forward to departing for Ghent tomorrow and, unless otherwise advised, we are determined to go. The players and the captain thought it better, under the circumstances, to practise together here rather than off-site on a different surface there and plan to practise on the match courts on-site tomorrow.”

One person who will not be attending the final is Tim Henman, who had planned to travel to Ghent with his wife and three daughters. The former world No 4, talking at an event to publicise Tie Break Tens, a night of 10-point tie-breaks at the Royal Albert Hall on 5 December, said: “With the train and the going over there, I just thought: ‘Is it really worth the hassle for them?’ So we are going to be watching at home.”

More than 1,000 British fans are due to travel to Ghent. Up to 150 are travelling with the British Association of Tennis Supporters, but the group’s chair, Mary Pope, said on Sunday night: “I’ve only heard from one person who is definitely not going. People are concerned but we haven’t cancelled our plans at this stage and are hoping to go.”

Tributes were paid to the victims of the Paris attacks over the weekend. The French national anthem, “La Marseillaise”, was played before Premier League matches while there was a minute’s silence before matches in rugby’s European competitions.