Davis Cup sends Andy Murray to San Diego baseball park to play the United States on clay Baseball is one of the few sports that Andy Murray - who grew up excelling at everything from squash to golf - is unfamiliar with. Even so, he has been handed an unexpected chance to perform in a baseball stadium when Great Britain face the United States in February's Davis Cup tie. The venue was confirmed last night as Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. A clay court is expected to be laid on the outfield, and temporary seating brought in on one side. Though the organisers will be hoping to fill the capacity of 8,000, tennis may be a tricky sell on the weekend of Jan 31 to Feb 2. The tie finishes on Super Bowl Sunday. This is the first time the US has hosted a Davis Cup tie on clay since 1992. The American style usually revolves around huge serves and forehands, which play well on faster hard courts. In this case, though, the intention is clearly to muzzle Murray, who has a relatively poor record on clay. He has only ever beaten one top-10 player on the surface, and has also suffered his most debilitating bouts of back trouble during the European clay-court season. The state of Murray's back - which underwent surgery two months ago - is likely to be the key issue in this tie. He is hoping to be fit to play the Australian Open in January, though if he managed to reach the final there, as he has done three times in the past four years, he would have to make a quick turnaround, leaving Melbourne on Monday Jan 27 to play his first match in San Diego on the Friday. "A lot depends how Murray is feeling and how his back goes in Australia," said Mike Bryan, who will continue his world-beating partnership with his twin Bob in the doubles element of the tie. He could potentially play doubles with his brother Jamie. That would be great to have two brothers against two brothers, I don't know if it's ever happened before. On paper, the Bryans say, the doubles should be decisive, because Murray is higher ranked than either of the US's likely singles players, John Isner (No 14) and Sam Querrey (No47). In theory, Murray should win both his singles matches while his back-up man - either Dan Evans or James Ward - would be unlikely to pick up a point. Still, the 6ft 10in Isner is a dangerous opponent, having beaten Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Davis Cup matches last year.