Davis Cup World Group Semi Finals

Argentina vs. Russia

This will be the competitive tie of the weekend and how it ends on Day 1 will be crucial. The Argentines have gone for experience in the form of Calleri and Cañas, something about the Davis Cup atmosphere brings the best out of Calleri and especially Nalbandian.

Del Potro’s huge improvement has come at the right time for Mancini when it comes to second singles options in this case, there was no real other option , if they were to make the final like I believe they will, then del Potro could be the number 1 ranked Argentine and that would make things interesting for the final.

Nalbandian is the glue of this team and has been for the longest time. This is the event, where he turns up to play, no shenanigans and thrives in this environment. His match with Andreev will be pivotal to how the tie goes. If it’s first match, it would be better, because del Potro would be more relaxed in his match with Davydenko, assuming that he plays on Day 1.

The Russians without Safin and Youzhny still bring a good team to Buenos Aires. It wouldn’t surprise if somehow Safin came out of nowhere and played in this tie. The crowd will be very hostile, but Andreev has had experience of this in Chile and will be the teams’ translator as well. The doubles could throw up a multitude of combinations, this will be dependant of Day 1 results as to what the captains will use.

With all these possible scenarios, the Argentines are favourites, though apart from del Potro, they aren’t in great form, but the home ground advantage and Nalbandian’s consistent play should get them over the line

Spain vs. USA

Only doing a preview of this tie for comedic purposes, because the only way Spain loses this, if their whole team is wiped out by some mysterious illness that only Boredo and Feli Lopez are immune to and they must play the tie.

Watching Roddick move on claycourt as effortlessly as an elephant on ice skates. No matter, how many times you see it, the viewer is bamboozled by the brilliance of the graceful movement, there should be warning before his matches “Please kids, don’t try this at home”.

At least big “Sam the studmuffin” Querrey is included in the team and will probably do better than the other guys in the team. He looks goofy and ungainly, but kudos to him for having a go on the clay last season and this season, he isn’t afraid of the clay unlike some of the Yanks.

Mardy Fish is there to be Roddick’s sidekick, clean his shoes, trim his nasal hair or others would say be his bitch, because he is definitely not going to star in a movie “A Fish called Mardy”, maybe he can come to Scandinavia and go a TV program “Fisker med Mardy Fish”, which means “Fishing with Mardy Fish”. Not sure whether he knows the true meaning of tackle in this case, and no, this does not mean huge men, wearing helmets and sniffing jockstraps running into each other, trying to prove some archaic form of manliness.

Hope the US enjoys their stay in Madrid, it’s quite a party city.