Tim Henman hurled his racket into the crowd in delight after almost single-handedly keeping Great Britain in the World Group of the Davis Cup.

In the absence of Greg Rusedski with a heel injury, the pressure was squarely on Henman's injured shoulder to prevent an embarrassing defeat against Thailand and relegation to Euro-Africa Zone One.

And despite only planning to play a maximum of two matches as late as Friday evening, the British number one delivered in devastating fashion in front of a partisan crowd at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

After his victory over Danai Udomchoke in four sets on Friday, Henman partnered Miles Maclagan to victory in Saturday's crucial doubles, and then brushed aside Paradorn Srichaphan in straight sets on Sunday to seal victory.

The world number five's 6-3 6-2 6-3 victory gave Roger Taylor's side an unassailable lead - rendering Arvind Parmar's 6-3 6-1 defeat by Udomchoke largely irrelevant - and means they maintain their place in the elite 16-nation world group in 2003.

Former Davis Cup coach John Lloyd hailed Henman's performance as the greatest ever in the competition by a British player, and Srichaphan - like Henman, effectively a one-man team for Thailand - acknowledged his opponent's heroics in carrying the nation's hopes once again.

Henman was more modest in evaluating his own display, but admitted: "I hardly put a foot wrong all day and I couldn't have asked for any more.

"To win in the style that I did and really dominate the match throughout is right up there with some of my best performances. Add in the fact the way I was feeling physically and it's massively satisfying.

"We had a good team spirit but on an individual level I take a lot of satisfaction because in difficult circumstances I produced the goods. This is what it's all about.

"On Monday when I hit for 40 minutes I thought I could probably play doubles because the physical effort is less. On Tuesday morning when I served for the first time there was no way I thought I was going to play three matches. Even on Friday night the plan was still just to play on Friday and Saturday.

"The medical team thought two matches was probably enough and it would be up to one of the other guys to realistically have to beat Udomchoke in the decisive match. But I've been surprised with the way my shoulder held up and it was worth another calculated risk today."

Henman has now won all four of his meetings with world number 31 Srichaphan for the loss of just one set, and the 23-year-old Thai right-hander conceded: "That is the best he has played against me.

"I thought I could give him a tough time but today he played unbelievably against me. He was not just winning for his Davis Cup record, he was winning for all the British people. I would say he has been heroic for his country."

However Henman's heroics once again highlighted the lack of depth in British tennis with Martin Lee outclassed by Srichaphan on Friday and Maclagan ranked 574th in the world after retiring from the game at the end of 2000.

If a first victory in the World Group since 1986 is going to be forthcoming, Britain not only need Rusedski back in the team, they could also do with a specialist doubles pairing to take some of the strain.

"The reality is we need a whole bunch of guys coming through," admitted Henman. "We need a doubles team because if you can have different people playing on Saturday than the ones that play on Friday and Sunday it's a massive advantage.

"We need more singles players so that if one of us is injured we've got some legitimate world group players. It shows how vulnerable we are, fortunately we were able to get away with it this time. In the future that might not be the story."

That will almost certainly be the case in the world group next year with Britain likely to face an away tie against one of the eight seeded nations after enjoying the luck of the draw with several home ties in recent years.

"It's an enormous goal of mine to win a world group tie having been a part of this type of atmosphere on three occasions and never getting past the first round," Henman added. "We talk in the big picture of winning the thing but we have to get past the first round and build from there."