Kyle Edmund will have a "big burden to carry" if he makes his Great Britain debut in the cauldron of this week's Davis Cup final, according to former Belgian star Filip Dewulf.
The two-time ATP title winner says the 20-year-old from Yorkshire will have to deal with some serious pressure if he is thrown into the Ghent tie, which starts on Friday, by captain Leon Smith.
Having recently won a Challenger Tour title on clay - the same surface to be used at the Flanders Expo this week - Edmund is the front-runner to play singles alongside Andy Murray.
"We are hoping he's going to be picked and feel the pressure of a Davis Cup final as we know he's a good player," said Dewulf, who played at the same venue during Belgium's 1999 semi-final run.
"He's had some good results in South America recently, while I saw him three years ago in Australia when he did well in the juniors [reaching the quarter-finals] and he had already impressed when I saw him there.
"[The venue] is not that big and the ceiling is not that high.
"There were only two to three thousand when I played there but still the atmosphere was great. Indoors it's easy to get something going and get the public to create some sort of atmosphere. With 13,000 people in there it's going to be great.
Edmund, being a young guy, and this being the biggest moment in British tennis history almost - that's a pretty big burden to carry.
"Players will have to cope with that. Some people stress out under that kind of pressure. Other players latch onto it and play better. [Belgian No 2] Steve Darcis is one of those players. In 10 years he's already won the fifth rubber four times so he's got some experience.
"I could understand if James Ward was picked. He's got more experience. Edmund, being a young guy, and this being the biggest moment in British tennis history almost - that's a pretty big burden to carry."
If picked in the four-man team, Edmund will become only the sixth player to make his Davis Cup debut in a final. The previous five - who include Pete Sampras - all lost their debut rubber.
Edmund would do well to break that sequence. He will almost certainly face Belgian No 1 David Goffin on Friday if picked, although it is perhaps a potential fifth and final rubber which will come into Smith's decision-making most - Edmund would be in line to play in that, probably against Darcis.
Dewulf, who played 21 Davis Cup ties for Belgium during a career which saw him reach a best ranking of 39th in the world, admitted GB go into the tie as worthy favourites but added there is still plenty of hope in and around the Belgian team.
He said: "Everybody knows that Great Britain are the favourites but it's still the Davis Cup, anything can happen and we have the surface, the clay, which normally isn't the favourite surface for Great Britain. Also, the home crowd has a part to play in our case.
"There was a press conference with the Belgian team the other day and they were feeling pretty confident, not overly confident, but ready to go for it. They have a chance and are ready to take that chance, that's what they said.
"They were hoping Andy Murray would go a long way [at the ATP World Tour Finals] and might be a little tired, the same with Jamie Murray. This might play a role because it's the last two weeks of the season and everybody is a little tired."
If GB have potential tiredness issues in their camp, the worry for the hosts has been over Darcis, the man who won the fifth and decisive rubber of their semi-final win over Argentina in September.
His ATP season was ended prematurely by an ankle injury at the Stockholm Open in October but after more than a month away from the match court, he should be fit for the final.
We call him Mr Davis Cup as he's the guy who plays almost every tie when not injured. He loves the competition.
Dewulf said: "Darcis had 10 days of rest and then he started practising on clay. The whole team has been together in Namur, near Brussels, and he said he's been doing OK, not 100 per cent but getting there, and he should be OK to play in the tie.
"We call him Mr Davis Cup as he's the guy who plays almost every tie when not injured. He loves the competition.
"We hope it will come down to the last rubber. That would mean picking up two points from Friday and Saturday because everybody knows beating Andy Murray will be very, very difficult. He's worth two points for Great Britain so it may well come down to the doubles."
That rubber also appears crucial to GB's hopes of winning the trophy for the first time since 1936 but Dewulf admits the visitors will also be favourites for the Saturday match, in which the Murray brothers look set to team up.
"I'm not that positive," he revealed. "It's not the best quality of the Belgian players, the doubles, but that's why they've brought in [former Wimbledon champion] Michael Llodra to prepare them a little more.
"On clay, doubles is not the same game and you can play from the back a little bit more and they will be hoping they can get one point there."
Darcis and Ruben Bemelmans seem the most likely doubles team, according to Dewulf, with Kimmer Coppejans sitting out, but with that raising the possibility of Darcis having to play three rubbers in as many days, there is talk in Belgium of Bemelmans being picked for singles action against Andy Murray on the opening day - a lamb to the slaughter, almost - and leaving Darcis fresh for the doubles and a potential fifth rubber on the Sunday.
Goffin, the world No 16, is widely expected to beat whoever the British pick as their second singles player on the Friday.
Wins for Murray and Goffin on the opening day would set up a blockbuster of a doubles rubber.
A capacity crowd of 13,000 will be in attendance for that and indeed the other two days, with Belgium's surprise run - they were 80/1 shots to win the competition at the start of the year - having captured the country's imagination. Belgians are embracing the sport again with interest having drained since the retirement of multiple Grand Slam winners Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.
"The Belgian people were a bit spolit by Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin," Dewulf explained. "After this, the attention for tennis went a little bit away. This year it's really picked up again with the team doing extremely well.
"You can really feel something brewing in Belgian tennis and the wider sporting world. Everybody wants to be at the final and it's going to be pretty intense.
"People are still comparing with Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters. Things will never be the same again but playing the way the guys are doing is pretty great as well. It will help get tennis a little bit bigger in Belgium."
A first-ever Davis Cup title would certainly help the Belgian game's cause but the British will have something to say about that when the action gets under way on Friday afternoon.
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