TENNIS DAVIS CUP:IRELAND'S DAVIS Cup promotional hopes were crushed last night when Irish number one Conor Niland and number two James McGee lost their opening exchanges against Lithuania to trail 2-0 after the opening day in Fitzwilliam.

McGee fought gamely against a player ranked much higher, Ricardo Berankis, while Ireland’s outstanding tour player Niland was out of sorts against the talented Laurynas Grigelis, finally falling in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.

It leaves Ireland needing to win the doubles today and the reverse singles tomorrow to advance.

By the time McGee fetched a wide ball close to umpire Fergus Murphy’s chair on match point and watched it nudged back into the wide open space of the back court, over three hours had passed in his match.

McGee, ranked 508th in the world to the Lithuanian’s 132nd, fell in four sets in the opening match of the Euro\African Group II meeting.

The 23-year-old from Dublin’s Castleknock had been sent in by non-playing captain Seán Sorensen in the hope he could cause the upset of the weekend. McGee almost delivered.

Sorensen’s hopeful instructions were followed until deep into the second set as McGee went a set and a service break up.

That sparked Irish hopes around the indoor court, before the calm and controlled Berankis, who made the second round of Wimbledon this year before being beaten by top-20 Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, ground the Irishman down 7-6, 4-6, 4-6, 3-6.

McGee, who has not played four sets since the last Davis Cup match in March as he is grinding out a professional career in the three-set Futures circuit, was disappointed to let the critical advantage slip in the second set.

“Disappointing, yeah. Up a set and a break. Felt I had my chances,” he said. “I was rolling on my service games. I think he was finding it hard to return my serve, all through the match actually. But he did a good job to break me back.

“It was really a dog-fight for the second, third and fourth sets. Berankis played really solid all through the match. His level didn’t really dip that much. He kept the same level the whole time.

“At the same time, I was a set and a break up and I had break point in the third set. If I was able to capitalise on one or two of those points I feel I could have taken him. Should, woulda, coulda . . . I don’t know.”

Having won the first set on a tie-break McGee, who served strong all through the match, broke the serve of Berankis in the fifth game of the second set for a 3-2 lead. But he lapsed in the next game and fell love-40 down, as Berankis had done in the first set.

That weak serving game allowed the former junior world number one level for 3-3.

In the 10th game McGee again fell two break points adrift, trailing 4-5, before a forehand hit too long tipped the set in Lithuania’s way for 1-1.

Playing in the Davis Cup is a different experience for tour players. It asks unusual questions. It exerts particular pressures. It injects passion and anxiety in equal measure that may only visit players once a year.

The competition pushes individual professionals into a team role, where they feel obliged to others and are asked to bear the weight of camaraderie. But the beauty of the team competition is that it can compress world rankings.

The player ranked at around 100 looks across the net and sees a player 300 places lower than him, just as Berankis did last night and as Grigelis did too with Niland.

When Niland smashed his racquet against his foot three times and then to the ground in the second set to draw a warning from the umpire, that was those fizzling grievances boiling over. Ranking last night meant little.

In that vein, McGee took the match to Berankis. His serve did come under periodic and regular pressure in the third and fourth sets but he asked questions of his opponent.

But Berankis didn’t panic, beating McGee approaching the net on the back-hand side on set point for 2-1. One break of serve in the fourth set was to end the match, again the Irishman moving to the net only to be passed for 3-5, allowing Berankis to serve for the set 6-3 and the match.

Niland’s match was more disappointing for the trail blazer. His 18-year-old opponent was known as talented but the Limerick man was confident he could open strongly for Ireland.

But Grigelis set about him early and broke service twice in the first set for 6-2.

From that point Niland struggled. The second set fell 6-3 for the Lithuanian and the fourth more lamely 6-1.

Ireland are down but not out. But almost.