Britain’s Davis Cup hero Neal Skupski to play padel with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp on court at club’s Kirkby HQ… after the Reds fan met assistant manager Pep Lijnders at Wimbledon

  • Liverpool fan Neal Skupski helped Great Britain beat France in the Davis Cup
  • Jurgen Klopp and several members of his staff are racket sports enthusiasts 

An already good week for Neal Skupski will get even better on Tuesday when he accepts a longtime invitation to play padel with Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool’s training ground.

Reds supporter Skupski, one of Britain’s Davis Cup heroes from Sunday night, is lined up to meet Klopp on the padel court at the club’s Kirkby HQ, and watch the team train. Manager Klopp and several members of his staff are racket sports enthusiasts and have had a court installed for the squad to use.

Skupski and his brother Ken, who is also his coach, were first invited when Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders came to Wimbledon last summer as a spectator.

‘It hasn’t been easy to arrange because of our schedules, but I’ve got a week off in Liverpool now and I’m really looking forward to it,’ said Skupski, after he and Dan Evans had saved four match points before clinching a dramatic doubles decider against France in Manchester.

The 2-1 victory in the best-of-three tie saw GB go through as group winners to November’s finals week in Malaga. In Tuesday’s draw they will find out if they meet Serbia or Italy in the quarter-finals.

Liverpool fan Neal Skupski was one of Britain’s Davis Cup heroes on Sunday night

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and several members of his staff are racket sports enthusiasts

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and several members of his staff are racket sports enthusiasts

Serbia have the ultimate firepower of Novak Djokovic playing in the singles, but their doubles is not especially strong and Italy have more all-round options and depth.

Captain Leon Smith believes the spirit shown in Manchester means GB need not fear anyone.

He said: ‘The matches are really tight and we’ve seen that in Manchester. Every single tie could have gone either way.’



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