Winning the Davis Cup would be a great British sporting achievement

This weekend, four men have the chance to write themselves into sporting history. The four men in question are Andy Murray, his brother Jamie, James Ward and Kyle Edmund.

Together they make up the Great Britain Davis Cup team and if they seal victory on Sunday, they will be Britain's first successful Davis Cup team since the Fred Perry days of 1936. 

It has been an extraordinary journey for Great Britain's male tennis team ever since Leon Smith took on the captaincy in 2010. At that point, Britain had slumped to a humiliating defeat in Lithuania, putting them on the brink of relegation to the lowest level in European Davis Cup participation.

However, Smith's quiet understated manner and intelligent tennis brain brought an instant impact with a 5-0 defeat of Turkey in July 2010. Since then, the team have won ten ties and lost only two (one of those was to this weekend's opponents Belgium in 2012, but they were lacking talisman Andy Murray).

After narrowly losing out to an inspired Italian side in the quarter finals in 2014, Murray and his teammates have made it a personal mission to win the 2015 edition of the Davis Cup. It began with a stunning victory over America in Glasgow in March, the highlight of which was Ward's remarkable comeback from two sets down against the man who lives for five setters John Isner.

After Andy had beaten Donald Young earlier in the day, it looked all set to finish 1-1 on the first day after Isner took the first two sets. Buoyed by a raucous Emirates Arena crowd, Ward launched arguably the best display of his career and held his serve and nerve superbly to win the fifth 15-13.

Jamie Murray and his partner Dominic Ignlot also threatened an unlikely comeback in the Saturday doubles against the best pair in the world; the Bryan Brothers but the American pair held on. However, Andy wasn't going to let this chance slip on the Sunday and defeated Isner to seal a first home victory for Britain against America since 1935.

The quarter final again pitched Britain against one of the world's strongest male tennis playing nations as France came to play on the grass at Queens Club. Ward couldn't produce more heroics as he lost the first singles rubber against Gilles Simon before Andy levelled up against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The Murray brothers then teamed up in the doubles, which was to prove the start of a fruitful partnership for Britain and they came from a set down to defeat Nicholas Mahut and Tsonga to give Britain a 2-1 lead going into Sunday.

Andy looked absolutely dead on his feet against Simon. A set and a break down, it looked like Ward would have to beat Richard Gasquet to keep the Davis Cup dream alive. Murray wasn't about to put that pressure on his countryman and produced a comeback to win in four sets, at the end of which he couldn't hide his emotions.

That set up a semi final in Glasgow in September against the Aussies. Andy started off the semi final in blistering fashion, losing only six games in his straight sets win over Kokkinakis. 

Smith had made the slightly controversial decision to hand Dan Evans the second singles slot for the tie, but although he lost to Bernard Tomic he put up a brave fight in four sets and more than justified his inclusion. The tie always looked like being decided by the Saturday doubles and so it proved to be.

The fans inside the Emirates Arena were treated to an unbelievable five setter as the Murray brothers dug into their deepest energy reserves to see off the fired up Aussie pair of Sam Groth and Lleyton Hewitt coming from a set down and also holding their nerve in the decider.

Despite Andy once again looking shattered, he swept aside Tomic on Sunday to seal a first appearance in the final for GB since 1978.

Now that final is fast approaching with the proceedings kicking off at 12.30 tomorrow. And what an interesting tie there is to start the final. Leon Smith has given the nod to 20 year old Kyle Edmund to play alongside Andy Murray in the singles.

Edmund will be making his debut in the Davis Cup in the final. No pressure Kyle. Smith has decided to go with him due to his excellent recent clay court form (the tie is being played on an indoor clay court), which included a Challenger Tour title win over clay court specialist Carlos Berlocq in Argentina two weeks ago. This year Edmund also won in five sets at Roland Garros against ten time clay court title champion Stephane Robert.

For me, you have to trust the judgement from Smith who has been a magnificent captain who has taken Britain to a level no tennis fan in this country could have dreamt of. He has obviously seen enough in practice and over recent tournaments to know that Edmund is more than capable of producing a surprise opening win over David Goffin, the world number 16 and Belgium's key man this weekend.

There can be no doubting Edmund will need to produce the performance of his life to win but if this year has taught us anything it's to expect the unexpected when it comes to the Great Britain Davis Cup team.

Murray will then come up against world number 108 Ruben Bemelmans who has been given the nod over Steve Darcis, who once beat Nadal at Wimbledon and who has been vital in their run to the final. With all due respect despite Murray having never played Bemelmans before I don't foresee Murray having too many problems.

The Saturday doubles will see the Murray brothers take on Darcis who will line up alongside 21 year old Kimmer Coppejans, who played in their win over Canada. Taking a lead into Sunday's singles will be vital and that is why Ward has been retained in the possibility of having to win a fifth rubber, with Darcis also a possibility to come in.

Overall, Britain have already upset the odds by beating the other three nations who host Grand Slams annually and all this with only one available player in the top 50 (Aljaz Bedene can't yet play for Britain in the Davis Cup). Contrast that with France who currently have four players in the top 20.

Murray is of course the key man and it simply would have been mission impossible without him but everyone has played their part. Ward's heroics against Isner and Jamie Murray's play in the doubles have also made this possible. Kyle Edmund might well become the star this weekend. 

Despite Murray's success over the last decade, Britain still isn't a tennis loving nation. A win this weekend would be a massive boost heading into 2016 and be one of the sporting achievements of the year.

The darting phenomenon that is Michael Van Gerwen

Darts is a sport that continues to grow and grow in popularity. One of the reasons for that is the brilliance of its number one ranked player, Dutchman Michael Van Gerwen.

Last night, he defeated the greatest player to ever play the sport; Phil Taylor by 16 legs to 13, to lift the Grand Slam trophy for the first time. That thrilling win, achieved by coming back from 4-1 and 7-3 down, means MVG (as the acronym goes) has now won every major Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) trophy. This is someone who doesn't turn 27 until April.

Back in January 2013, I wrote this piece after Van Gerwen reached the World Championship final for the first time, where he lost out to Taylor (http://www.ewansworldofsport.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/why-michael-van-gerwen-is-future-of.html). It's not very often I get sporting predictions right, but I was always confident of that one coming true.

Since losing that final, Van Gerwen has went onto win the World Championships, the Premier League, the World Matchplay, the Grand Prix (to add to a success in 2012), the UK Open, the European Championships twice, the Masters and now the Grand Slam. This is a man who just loves winning darts matches and trophies and right now as the World Championships loom on the horizon, he is going to take some beating.

During the Grand Slam, he averaged over 100 with every three darts thrown, in every one of the seven matches he played. Indeed, his average of 100.94 in the final was his lowest of the week which had peaked at an astonishing 111.05 in his 16-4 quarter final win over Kim Huybrechts on Saturday night. With those sort of averages, players are having to almost hit two big trebles just to live with him or be as equally lethal on the doubles, something Taylor didn't do as he missed 26 out of his 39 darts thrown at doubles. During his last three matches at the Grand Slam, Van Gerwen threw a remarkable 34 180's in total.

Not only has Van Gerwen won five major Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) tournaments during 2015, he has also reached the final of every major TV event after losing to Gary Anderson in the World Championship semi final on January 3. He is showing a remarkable degree of consistency that hasn't been seen in darts since Phil Taylor truly dominated the sport throughout the 1990's and 2000's.

The challenge now for Van Gerwen though is to become Taylor-esque and start winning the big PDC majors multiple times over and over. Time is certainly very much on his side. Whilst it would be astonishing if the Dutchman got anywhere near Taylor's record by the end of their respective careers, he has certainly got the talent to make a bid to become the second greatest darts player of all time. 

Just look at Taylor's CV. He's won the World Championship on 16 occasions (he won the BDO in 1990 and 1992) before winning the PDC version 14 times between 1995 and 2013. He's won the World Matchplay 15 times, the Grand Prix 11 times, the UK Open five times, the Premier League six times since its debut in 2005 and the Grand Slam six times since its debut in 2007.

Van Gerwen might have won a lot this year, but he missed one out of every three doubles in the Grand Prix final which allowed Scotland's Robert Thornton to complete a famous 5-4 win. If Van Gerwen had won that, he'd be able to say he had won it three times in the last four years.

After a win in the Premier League in 2013, he has lost the last two finals to countryman Raymond Van Barneveld in 2014 and Anderson this year. Taylor won the event five out of six times between 2005-2010.

Van Gerwen's breakthrough success came at the Grand Prix in 2012 and he followed that up a month later with a final appearance in the Grand Slam, where an inspirational performance from Van Barneveld stopped him. The following two years though he lost at the second round and quarter final stages. Now he's finally won it, can he defend it in 2016 and beyond?

The same goes for the World Matchplay. Until his defeat in the semi finals this year Taylor hadn't lost a match at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool since 2007. Van Gerwen progressed from a semi final appearance in 2013, to runner up in 2014 to winning it this year. Now he needs to stay at the top.

And what of the World Championships which begin in London on December 17? He is certainly going to take some stopping in his current form, but Anderson showed last year that it can be done as did Taylor in the 2013 final. Van Gerwen has certainly cemented his place at the top of the rankings, but everyone is now gunning for him at the Alexandra Palace. 

Darts has had many iconic figures over the years from Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson and John Lowe in the 80s to Taylor and Dennis Priestley in the 90's. And Barneveld, John Part and the BDO's Andy Fordham and Martin Adams in the 2000's.

Van Gerwen now has the potential to join them. It will be fascinating to see him handle the pressure.