The Isle of Man’s Billy Harris suffered two singles defeats as Great Britain lost to Japan in the Davis Cup over the weekend.

Britain now face a relegation play-off later in the year as they attempt to stay in the World Cup of tennis’s top tier following the 3-2 defeat in Miki.

Britain were without Grand Slam semi-finalists Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie for the match in the Far East, with British number three Jacob Fearnley and former Island Games medallist Harris the team’s top ranked singles players.

Davis Cup debutant Fearnley beat former world number four Kei Nishikori 6/3, 6/3, but the former Albany and Castletown member lost 7/5, 6/1 to Yoshihito Nishioka on Friday as parity was restored to the tie.

A doubles win for Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski on Saturday put GB back in front overall. However, Fearnley and 30-year-old Harris fell to straight-sets defeats at the hands Nishioka and Nishikori respectively sealed the victory for the hosts.

GB’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith said: ‘Losing is difficult but I can't fault the efforts of the four players here over the last two days, and the whole week for that matter.

‘They've been great to work with, they gave everything they could on the match court.’

Harris, who is top seed at this week’s Chennai Open event in India, added: ‘Gutted to walk away without a win in Japan. But very proud to represent a great team. Thanks to everyone that came out to support in Japan and back home.’