The world number four played in the last two ties to help Britain win promotion back to Europe/Africa Zone Group I but opted out of this one to rest a few niggling injuries after his run to the Australian Open semi-finals.
Smith, who coached Murray as a junior, is fully supportive of the 24-year-old’s decision, telling Press Association Sport: “I’m really in his corner for this one.
“I and the whole of British tennis would want him to win a grand slam and we know how crammed the schedule is, we know what those players feel like at the end of the year so it’s important that when he can let himself rest and regenerate and then train up for the rest of the season that he does that.
“He’s really positive about playing Davis Cup. I know for a fact that he loved the last two ties, he loved in particular playing in front of his home crowd and being part of a team.
“He gets on great with all the players and the coaching team so he wants to play. If he plays the next one, that would be great.”
While Murray heads off to his training base in the US to work with new coach Ivan Lendl ahead of his next tournament in Dubai later this month, his team-mates will take to the court at Glasgow’s Braehead Arena – the third consecutive tie to be played here – as very much the underdogs.
In their last match against Hungary in September, the visitors’ priority appeared to be securing souvenir pictures with Murray, and Britain eased to a 5-0 victory.
But Slovakia’s singles players are both ranked higher than their British counterparts, James Ward and Dan Evans, and number one Lukas Lacko last week reached the final of the ATP World Tour event in Zagreb to climb to 65th in the world.
Smith, who is unbeaten in four ties, said: “It’s a very tough tie and it’s going to be difficult because their players are very much in form, especially the number one Lacko, who’s had a tremendous start to the year.”
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