Far away in the Davis Cup world group, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal could meet next March in what would be the tournament’s best individual match for years: Spain against Switzerland is a first-round blockbuster.

In the wilderness of Group II of the Europe/ Africa Zone, do not expect Andy Murray to be in the Great Britain party heading to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania in that same week.

Having suggested that British players should start winning (or losing) for themselves and given carte blanche by Roger Draper, chief executive of the LTA, to do whatever he wants without fear of retribution, Murray will sidestep a trip that would send him in precisely the opposite career direction to the one he needs to take.

In the week before the first Masters tournament of 2010, in Indian Wells, California, the thought of spending several days by the Baltic Sea - despite the fact he would be bound to win both singles matches - is hardly on the No 1’s agenda.

Better those lower down the scale start to shoulder the burden of repairing the country’s credibility in the competition against oppostion even more lowly than they are.

One is tempted to wonder how much the Lithuanian Tennis Federation invests in performance programmes. It would be instructive to know how much the LTA has spent in the past three years, but they are reluctant to reveal actual figures and performance salaries, lest it compromises further their inabilility to produce a team able to fashion a win.

Lithuania has three players inside the world’s top 1,000 and has only hosted two home ties, so playing Britain is a bonanza for them.

Ricardas Berankis has a world ranking of 432, Laurynas Grigelis is 642 and Gvidas Sabeckis at 672. Grigelis won the Wrexham ATP Futures event earlier this month, defeating two British players, Josh Milton and David Rice, named by Draper this week as individuals in whom Britain has high hopes for the future.

The likelihood is the tie would be played on clay which would give James Ward, the British No 2 who missed the defeat to Poland in Liverpool last weekend because of glandular fever, an opportunity to make his debut, quite possibly alongside Josh Goodall with Colin Fleming, the Scot, and Ken Skupski, his regular partner, in the doubles.

Should Britain break a four-match losing streak, it would face either a trip to either Ireland or Turkey in the second round in July and another away match awaits in September to confirm promotion to Zone I for 2011.