Germany vs France
This tie has been racked by internal problems from French between Captain Guy Forget and Fabrice Santoro. These two have had a history of pissing each other off and it continues here with Forget not selecting Santoro for the team and using a lame excuse to justify it.
What happened was that Santoro on the Saturday just gone was to play an exhibition against Nadal and then come back on the night, but that was not good enough for Forget. In this case Forget decided he was out of the team and tried to paint Santoro as a total mercenary and then the rest of the team turned on him and made some not so nice comments.
The interesting thing is that somehow Arnaud Clement made the team and it is a mystery as to how he did. There could be a few reasons. These include he is good in bed, he plays the lackey role and unlike Santoro doesn’t express his own views. It must be a contract stipulation that Clement must clean Forget’s boots and wipe his arse and if he does that then he is selected.
Here it is Santoro is in form and one of the best doubles players going around and it’s not a beauty or popularity contest, they are there to win and should pick the best side.
The Germans will be tough as Kiefer and Haas are in excellent form and are comfortable on Rebound Ace as the French are, but as much as Kiefer and Haas aren’t the best of friends, they are professional enough to play together and German captain Patrick Kuhnen isn’t trying to be the big star and just is doing what he needs to help his team win.
Grosjean vs Kiefer the rematch of the quarter final in Melbourne, well there should be an edge to this match as there isn’t a lot of love there and Kiefer won’t get away with those antics like he did in Melbourne a tough one.
Haas and Gasquet, well one is in good form and that would be Haas against the greatly hyped Gasquet, will be interesting to see whether Gasquet can turn around his slump. It would be good if Germans won, mainly to get Forget sacked and maybe learn a few lessons.
Netherlands vs Russia:
If the Dutch had Sjeng Schalken and Martin Verkerk available to play along with Sluiter, then this would be a very close tie to call.
The Russians have greater overall depth and are giving blogger favourite Dmitry Tursunov a run in the singles and Andreev is only playing doubles as the PMK is the main player now while Safin is out injured.
This one should be quite an easy win for the Russians, anything else would be a surprise, but surprises happen in Davis Cup.
4 comments:
What a great tie Germany vs. France.
The Germans seem to be the favorites.
I would love to watch the rematch between Kiefer and Grosjean. The French is a gentleman, and is not going to enter in Kiefers dirty kind of game. Although, I think the german is going to win.
I didn't know anything about the issue between Forget and Santoro.
The French doubles with Santoro and Llodra was great... too bad for them.
Although I'm not a fan of Santoro but have to admit the excuse by Forget is really lame. And for Clement, he played well with Llorda in doubles in DC ties. His result in DC is good, so why not he's on the DC team even without all the reasons you provided?
And yes, the Germans are much better in team spirit than the Frenchies. Basically, no other Germans like Kiefer and vice versa (I guess) but they always put aside personal feelings when playing for Germany.
For the other tie, I have the feeling that Netherlands may surprise us so we'll see.
btw, those word verifications are really testing my typing skill *lol*
Have to admit to laughing very hard about the Clement references to Forget and his place in the team. Santoro is in form, which is something Clement is not and it seems that unlike the Germans, Forget has decided to make himself a focal point.
Kiefer and Grosjean. Will Kiefer be up to trying his shenanigans or will he be quiet.
Outstanding effort from Grosjean and Gasquet turned around some poor form and came through in a tough match against Haas.
It looks good for Captain Dickhead.
The Russians are home in this one and it looks like they could have another meeting with the Frenchies,
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