Great Britain face a relegation playoff in the Davis Cup after a makeshift team were beaten 3-2 by Japan.

Debutant Jacob Fearnley’s impressive singles win on Friday had given Leon Smith’s side hope of victory despite being without grand slam semi-finalists Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie.

Those hopes were heightened when experienced doubles pair Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury won Saturday’s opening rubber 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) against Yosuke Watanuki and Takeru Yuzuki. But neither Fearnley nor Billy Harris could pick up the one singles victory Britain needed to reach the second round of qualifiers.

Fearnley, the fast-rising 23-year-old playing in his first Davis Cup tie, was beaten 6-3, 7-6 (0) by Yoshihito Nishioka, who sits 10 places above the Scot in the world rankings at 67.

That set up a deciding match between world No 129 Billy Harris and the former US Open finalist Kei Nishikori, who eased to a 6-2, 6-3 victory at the Bourbon Beans Dome in Miki. Britain will now need to win a tie in September to keep their place in the top tier next season.

Captain Smith said: “Obviously losing is difficult but I can’t fault the efforts of the four players. They’ve been great to work with, they gave everything they could on the match court. Congratulations to team Japan, they played very well. They have good depth in their team. There’s a lot of quality and we pushed them hard.”