Belarus vs Spain:
On pedigree Spain should win this tie, but these ties aren’t won on pedigree. This one will be a very tough one for the Spanish to win.
Max Mirnyi the number 1 for Belarus is one of those players who plays very well for his country and two this surface is going to be like playing on a ice rink and it might be a carpet court in theory, but the combination of the big serving “Beast” and lightning quick conditions give an advantage to Belarus.
Spain are missing Rafael Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero, through various reasons. Nadal has been injured for a while and it wouldn’t be a wise choice to select him for Davis Cup after not playing since October and as for Ferrero, well he asked to be excused so he can chase the cash in South America and try and get his career back on track, but I doubt he will be back to his former days.
The team they have is Tommy Boredo and David Ferrer and Robredo starts off against the Beast and will be under pressure to get a good result. Ferrer who has improved his record off clay in 2005 has a huge test to see how much he has improved. Vladimir Voltchkov is someone who is just around for Davis Cup these days and rises to the occasion and beats players he normally wouldn’t get close to in normal tournaments, but if Mirnyi gets the Belarussians to a 1-0 lead, then big bad Vlad will have the freedom to play without fear on a surface he is familiar with and put the pressure on Ferrer.
LaLo and Verdasco are the doubles team and there is a chance that the Spanish could be eliminated by Day 2 of the tie. If this is to happen, at least the Spanish players would win the best looking title and maybe LaLo can give some of the local ladies some beauty tips. At the same time it could be down to them to keep them in the tie and maybe one of the doubles guys could play a role in the singles.
Switzerland vs Australia:
The Swiss looked like a big special in this tie as they are playing the Aussies who apart from Peter Luczak are claycourt clowns. This scenario changed when Roger Federer ruled himself out with injury and in his case it seems more legitimate than Lleyton Hewitt.
Hewitt who is continuously having a bitch at someone or something is having problems with Tennis Australia. I mean TA aren’t the most competent organissation around, but Hewitt goes on with is just petty shit a lot of the time. The courts at Melbourne aren’t suited to him and they should make them quicker, just for him. Yes, the Australian Open is an international event and he made the final when it was meant to be slow.
The best one is that he pulls out of this tie citing injury, then he is magically cured enough to play in San Jose on the Monday. This is interesting, but at the same time it gives the young Aussies an opportunity.
Switzerland will be lead by Stani Wawrinka who is at his best on clay and has improved quite a bit and is the best player in this tie and Michael Lammer is the number 2 and they are up against Peter Luczak and Chris “Ronald McDonald” Guccione who is like Wayne Arthurs except with a forehand.
This tie could very close as well and the Aussies have the advantage in the doubles with Paul Hanley and Arthurs, though the Swiss with Yves Allegro and Bastl are experienced in this atmosphere, so the Aussies will need the doubles if they have hopes of winning this tie. I don’t see the number ones losing their matches on the first day, but with Luczak as the only capable Aussie on clay, the Swiss will be slight favourites for this.
The question is did Hewitt pull out cause he was afraid of a potential arse kicking from Federer on clay.
5 comments:
With Nadal and Ferrero out, Spain seems to be in the same situation Argentina was without King David and Coria in 2004.
Argentina got whipped 5-0, being able to win only one set (Monaco did it in the last rubber).
Mirnyi is truly a beast on that surface and as you said, playing for his country.
Oh, and the Spanish shouldn't underestimate Voltchkov on that unique surface.
You also wrote that maybe one of the doubles guys could play a role in the singles. I think that would be good for Spain, Verdasco and Lopez are probably better equiped to play on that superfast carpet than Robredo and Ferrer.
We will see...
I lost faith in Max in the last year or 2. He is not as good a singles player as he's 2 years ago. And I think Robredo and Ferrer are OK on fast surface even though not their best surface. So, I actually think Spain's chance is good.
Unless the other Swiss step up, I doubt Federer will really put some effort into player DC. Ditto Hewitt.
Big Max will be very difficult to beat on the ice rink and I am not sure whether Robredo or Ferrer have the goods to do so, on a surface like this the returns are very important.
Lopez played an absolute stinker last year in Slovakia in singles on a similar surface to this and sure his serve is excellent, the same can't said about his return game.
Hahahaha Ronald MacDonald that was pretty good. Good work there.
The Beast was back to something like his best and on this surface, he is very difficult to beat and showed it againsat Boredo.
This freed up Voltchkov and they look like they have their spot in the WG again.
Luczak played well after a nervous beginning and even Ronald wasn't too bad, but Stani had too much class in the end.
Post a Comment