Taylor insists Britain have 'fighting chance'

Great Britain's Davis Cup squad insisted that they had a fighting chance as they flew to Australia yesterday despite being ravaged by injury for next month's World Group tie.

The team captain, Roger Taylor, will pin his hopes on Arvind Parmar, the world No 161, and the 18-year-old Alex Bogdanovic, ranked 459, after the withdrawals of Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski, as well as Martin Lee.

Alan Mackin, the doubles specialist Miles Maclagan and Lee Childs, ranked 333, 444 and 479 respectively, complete the line-up which will face opponents including the world No 1, Lleyton Hewitt, and the big-serving Mark Philippoussis, as well as Todd Woodbridge, who has won 74 doubles titles.

The British players trail the Australian team – which also includes the world No 52, Wayne Arthur, who has reached a Grand Slam fourth round on four occasions, as well as the 139th-ranked Scott Draper – by 29-0 in career singles titles and £17,250,631 in tour earnings.

On his website yesterday, Henman said from his training base in San Diego: "The warm weather has obviously helped my shoulder and I've been able to increase the pace I've been serving at, so much so that I'm probably up to about 90 per cent, which is a huge improvement on where I was when I left London.

"[My coach] Larry Stefanki, and I feel confident that not only will my serve be better as a result but I'll also have the best possible chance of the injury not flaring up again."