THE Great Britain Davis Cup team were due to travel to Belgium today, after putting their arrival for this weekend's final in Ghent back by 24 hours in the wake of a heightened security threat in the Brussels area. While details of their transit arrangements are understandably being kept secret by the Lawn Tennis Association, Andy and Jamie Murray, the team's Glaswegian captain Leon Smith and the remainder of the team had originally been expected to make their way to the Flanders Expo Arena in Ghent for the tie on Sunday but decided to re-arrange their plans on the strength of a Foreign and Commonwealth Office warning on Saturday morning that the there was a "serious and imminent" threat of a terrorist attack in Brussels.

Belgium has been pinpointed as the home of many of the perpetrators of the recent incident in France, which killed 130 people, and this weekend saw the Brussels Metro system closed and many football matches postponed on police advice, with citizens warned to avoid shopping centres and large gatherings of people if at all possible. While ITF President David Haggerty expressed "great concern" about the sporting showpiece being played amid such circumstances - Ghent is only 35 miles away, and is clearly a transit point for many of the 1,000 Brits who will form part of a 13,000 crowd each day of the three-day event - the threat level in other parts of Belgium yesterday remained at ‘level 3’. That represents a "possible and real" threat, with advice limited to staying vigilant in places with large groups of people and respecting security controls. A large track cycling event, known as the Ghent Six, has been taking place regardless all weekend in the city's Kuipke velodrome.

Rather than travelling, the British team squeezed in an extra day of practice together on a specially-designed indoor clay court at the Queen's Club in London, rather than taking their chances with off-site practice elsewhere in Ghent. Andy Murray said this week that it was important that the tie goes ahead as scheduled in order that the "terrorists don't win."

"The team are very much looking forward to departing for Ghent tomorrow [Monday], and, unless otherwise advised, we are determined to go [to the final]," said a spokesman. "The players and the captain thought it better, under the circumstances, to practise together here rather than off-site on a different surface there, and plan to practise on the match courts on site tomorrow."