Alex Bogdanovic was unable to prevent Great Britain relegation to the lower reaches of world tennis, as he crashed to a four set defeat to Alexander Peya of Austria.

The British No 2 lost 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to give Austria a 3-2 Davis Cup victory which means Britain lose their status in the world group of 16 elite tennis nations.

Instead Britain will play in the Europe/Africa zone against potentially Latvia, Belarus or Macedonia which is tantamount to the conference league in football. And it means the future of Davis Cup captain John Lloyd is also in doubt after his gamble to rest Andy Murray for the doubles on Saturday backfired.

Murray did his bit on Sunday, beating Austria's No 1 Jurgen Melzer in a feisty and passionate rubber 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 to square the tie at 2-2 and set up Bogdanovic for a tilt at glory. It was a feisty and passionate performance from Murray who struggled with the slippy court and the morning start but came through to demonstrate his pride and commitment in a national jersey.

Whether it would have been the winning rubber if Murray and his big match temperament had been allowed to play with his brother Jamie in the doubles we will never know.

But Lloyd said he would take the heat if it went wrong and there are those who might hold him to that.

The captain's confidence in Bogdanovic certainly was misplaced after the Belgrade-born 24-year-old demonstrated lots of his natural talent but once more succumbed to psychological fragility. Bogdanovic had not won a 'live' Davis Cup rubber in five previous attempts. He had lost seven consecutive singles matches in the first round at Wimbledon.

And in 2004 the LTA withdrew the bulk of their funding to him because of a perceived lack of commitment. There was none of that in this tie. He tried as hard as he could, cheered on by a partisan crowd on Court One, but he seems incapable of finishing off matches even when he is clearly the more talented player.

He played quite superbly in the first set, his heavy serve and powerful groundstrokes troubling Peya, who at 164 in the world was two places below Bogdanovic.

But the Austrian, who had shown signs of class in defeat against Andy Murray on Friday, gradually fought his way back into the match. Bogdanovic had his chances but there were too many errors, such as a wild long smash in the ninth game of the second set and a failure to convert break points in the sixth game of the third set.

By the time it got to the fourth set the body language on the British bench was resigned, barely any vocal support going Bogdanovic's way. Peya rattled off four straight games before Bogdanovic put in a late flurry but, in truth, the end was tame an inevitable as Austria beat Britain for the first time on grass.