Israel vs. Chile
Fernando Gonzalez returned to form at the right time with a title win in Beijing and will want to atone for the disappointment against Russia in the 1st round, when he lost to Andreev on Day 1 and that cost Chile a chance to make the Davis Cup final and we know how much Gonzo and Massu both love playing for their country. Massu has been in woeful form of late and there were some calls for Capdeville to replace him, but Gildemeister made the call to stick with Massu and he opens up the tie against "the Dude" Dudi Sela and the hardcourt surface should be fairly fast. It wouldn't surprise if 'the Dude" beats Massu. The doubles will be interesting with Erlich/Ram against Gonzo/Massu, one team being of doubles specialists and the other one have known each other for years and play very well as a combination when playing for Chile. Though the Chileans should be too strong overall and will return to the World Group.
Serbia vs. Australia
The shenanigans started early in the week with the Aussies complaining about the state of the court in Belgrade with Hewitt making comments about craters. Temporary courts need time to be ready and to be played on before they can get to an acceptable standard. The Aussies should know this when they use the drop-in grass courts and there have been problems with that in the past. The ITF referee would have the option of cancelling the tie if the court was unplayable and too poor to play on.
Onto the tie now and the Serbians are big favourites and are very confident about their chances. They have not been shy in stating this and they have good reason to as well. Novak Djokovic is on fire at the moment, plus Janko Tipsarevic is another guy who lifts his level for Davis Cup play, plus the very likeable Nenad Zimonjic, who happens to be one of the worlds best doubles players and the Serbs have a good foundation. They are both very comfortable on the clay and they will have 20,000 Serbian fans cheering them on in a hostile atmosphere for the Aussies.
The Aussies of course are dependant on Hewitt and have been for a while. He has bitched about a lot of things, but he needs that so he can fire up and function on court and he loves the hostile environments, actually I think he gets a hard on when he plays in places he is hated. I mean he has played in Guga land and came out the winner, he played in Barcelona and defeated Costa, when the whole crowd wanted to have his head on a platter. Last year he was in Argentina where he isn't exactly loved through his previous confrontations with many Argie players, but he has shown he can handle hostile environments.
Peter Luczak, one of the best guys on tour has been selected for the second singles and will have the task of playing Djokovic in the 1st match. It will be tough for Luczak, but just hope he can put on a brave performance and if Djoko is going to beat him, then he keeps him out there for as long as it takes. Luczak loves the clay and he could get the ball into uncomfortable areas for Djokovic shoulder and head high and he can run all day, plus he loves the DC environment, but it will be a tall order and the Aussies will be fortunate if they can get it to a 5th match.
Austria vs. Brazil
This tie is looking ugly for Brazil either way you look at it. They will be playing on carpet away from home, in addition to the fact that they have lost Saretta and Melo part of the excellent Brazilian team of Melo and Sa. Guga is in the team, but is only fit enough these days for playing doubles. They will take in Mello, Sa, Guga and Belucci the youngster as their team and they will do well if they win a match this time around. Belucci is a youngster with promise, but he is definitely going to be a steep learning curve in this situation.
Melzer, El Fashionista, Eschauer and Knowle will be playing for the Austrians and they should be able to preserve their World Group status by the 2nd day and this will give Eschauer an opportunity at 34 to play Davis Cup. This will work for Koubek as well, he can get a flight to Mumbai earlier if they win on Day 2 as expected.
Peru vs. Belarus
Unlike the previous tie previewed this one is very difficult to call for a few reasons. Peru if they win achieve WG status for the first time in a long time and at home they should be favoured to do so, which brings a lot of different pressures in itself. Last time Peru were in the WG they had the man Jaime Yzaga as a top player and now he is the captain and this tie will depend on Lucho Horna for sure. He loves the DC and to lead his team to WG status would be a very big moment for him. He will be under pressure and expected to win both his singles matches, this leads to where the other win will come from. Chino Miranda will have to play the tennis of his life to help Lucho out and his match with Mirnyi could set the mood for the tie on Day 1.
Belarus have the beast Max Mirnyi and the vodka loving Voltchkov, who only plays DC these days and not on the tour. He has been playing clay Futures events and maybe laying off the vodka as well. It would be interesting to see if the Belarussians would put the French Open junior champion Ignatik in a live singles match.
Horna has had some problems with his back, but he wouldn't miss this unless he couldn't walk and Mirnyi has been suffering from very poor form lately. Max has a 3-0 lead over Horna in their matches, but none of them have been in South America and Lucho finally beat him in a qualie match in one of the TMS events. He just has to stay calm and pin Max on the baseline in his service games and then watch the ball and not the man at the net. Not sure about this one, but it would be great if Peru could make the World Group, need to see some other countries there.
6 comments:
A great read once again.
It would be awesome if Lucho could lead Peru into the World Group. It would be probably be a much sweeter achievement for him than beating Massu in the Vina Del Mar final earlier this year was. It's a shame that he doesn't have a reliable no. 2 player behind him.
You have to fear for Brazil. They have as much chance of upsetting the odds against Austria, as Srichaphan does of winning the French Open next year it would seem. Hopefully El Fashionista can wow his home supporters.
Lucsak thoroughly deserves to play in Belgrade and you can't help but feel delighted for him.
Massu is mounting a comeback from 2 sets down right now. Sela had the chance to serve for the match and missed. Not a good sign.
Serbia will have to rely heavily on Djokovic. Although Janko declares he's fit to play but knee problem is worrisome.
Not much hope for Brazil. Mello is awful for a long time although he picks up his play for DC, still. Sá will be a better choice for singles IMO but I think Costa wants to give the young guy, Belucci, a taste of DC rubber.
Israel got to 1-1 and Gonzo had to struggle against Okun, the doubles in theory should be the Israelis advantage.
Brazil are going to be pounded and it's not going to be pretty either.
Peru have never made the World Group and this is a huge thing for them and Chino will need to use the crowd to get on Mirnyi's case to give them an extra advantage.
Good luck to Luczak in his adventures.
The Aussies are hoping for 1-1 at the end of Day 1, but they do have chances in this tie and the Serbians are being very confident about they have already got into the World Group next year.
I listened to the Horna interview and you could tell how much it would mean for Peru to make the World Group and this is the best chance they have of doing it.
Israel-Chile has been quite a heated tie, I hope Chile can get through it but I don't trust the raccoon Massu. Gildemeister didn't have the balls to pick Capdeville for the first day, now he'll have to live with the consequences in case of a defeat.
Brazilian tennis is fucked up in so many ways. Some strong rumours going around in the press that Marcelo Melo was caught on anti-doping exam. We'll surely be hearing from it in the future.
The Serbians have qualified for the World Group and Hewitt withdrawing with an illness seemed suspect before the Djokovic match, but Nole did the job and they can do some damage in this group.
Brazil ended up getting a win over the Austrians, as Eschauer got beaten by Sa.
The Israeli tie could go down to the wire.
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