Retired Rusedski kept plans secret

Rusedski announced he was quitting after helping Great Britain defeat Holland in their Davis Cup tie in Birmingham, teaming up with Jamie Murray in the doubles to give the home side an unassailable 3-0 lead in the Euro-Africa Zone Group One tie.

An emotional Rusedski fought back tears as he said: "It was a proud moment as it's going to be my last match. I'm officially retiring on a win today. I made the decision at the start of the year but I didn't want to take away from the tie and have team-mates answering questions about my retirement so I only told the others after the final point."

He added: "I would like to thank all the fans for supporting me for 13 years playing Davis Cup for the country. I'd like to thank Jamie for carrying me through the doubles today. I wanted to play one more tie at home. It's been a tough last year and now, with a family, your life changes. I felt like I couldn't do it any more."

The win over the Dutch ensured Britain will face a play-off in September to return to the elite 16-nation World Group for the first time since 2003.

But the 33-year-old former world number four made the announcement in a courtside interview after helping Murray make a winning Davis Cup debut with a 6-1 3-6 6-3 7-6 victory over Robin Haase and Rogier Wassen.

Rusedski had played just one previous match in 2007 - losing in the first round of a Challenger event in Sarajevo - as he struggled with a nagging hip injury and plummeting world ranking.

Captain John Lloyd paid tribute to the world number 283, saying: "If we won I thought he would postpone his decision until September but it's a good way to go out. It's good to go out playing a match like that but we'll miss him. We've had a great team and Greg has been a big part of it. Greg has done a lot for British tennis and he has been underestimated in his career.

"Reaching the final of the US Open didn't make as big an impact in Britain as it should have done, just because it wasn't Wimbledon, and people don't realise how hard it is to reach number four in the world either.

"It's even more admirable that he knew this was his last tie yet put in the amount of work that he did to be fit to play. He could easily have slackened off but he didn't do that."