Tennis: Davis Cup

[radevd]

Yes finally Davis Cup. After a good tournament in Buchrest the big tennis comes back: Semifinals: Spain-USA see no reason to comment. No chance for americans on clay. Argentina-Spain: Even if they play on claycourt in Buenos Aires I see Russians overcome argentinians. The only argentinian hope is Del Potro. :lol Russia can look back on five semifinals this decade. It has not had the depth of talent to choose from that Spain and Argentina has, but has used its half-dozen world class players to great effect to win ties in which it started as underdog. The best example came in the 2007 first round when Marat Safin and Igor Andreev beat Chile on the clay of Santiago in the absence of Russia’s other glamorous names. The mastermind behind Russia’s success has been Shamil Tarpischev, the wily captain who was once a government minister. He has done deals with his players to ensure they take breaks from certain ties in return for shouldering the burden in others. It has led to two titles for Russia, both won on live fifth rubbers – Mikhail Youzhny’s coming-out party against the luckless Paul-Henri Mathieu in 2002, and Marat Safin’s triumph over José Acasuso on home soil in 2006. Argentina finds itself in a similar position to where Spain was 10 years ago. It has been a golden era for Argentina’s men in terms of populating the world’s top 100, and that has meant notable individual triumphs, headed by Gaston Gaudio’s French Open title in 2004 when three of the four semifinalists were Argentinian. But it has never turned that success into Davis Cup dominance, and has just one final (Moscow 2006) to show for its five semifinals this decade. In a country mad about football (soccer), Argentina’s players know the way to their sports fans’ hearts is via success in team competitions. That perhaps explains why Argentina has developed such an impressive home record in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas, even this year when the country has done very little on the tour outside Juan-Martin del Potro’s 23-match unbeaten run over recent weeks. David Nalbandian is the torchbearer of the team – he has never lost a Davis Cup match, singles or doubles, on home soil, and his relatively poor year on the tour could all be because his focus is on the one competition that really matters to the Argentina sporting public. Bad news for Russia: Marat Safin has withdrawn from Russia's Davis Cup semi-final with Argentina to focus on improving his world ranking. The former world number one is due to play in the Thailand Open immediately after the 19-21 September tie. Safin, 28, is hoping to move up from his current ranking of 39 with a good showing in Thailand and says playing in Buenos Aires will hamper his chances. "Safin needs to keep getting points before the end of the year," said a statement on his official website. "He feels the trip from Buenos Aires to Bangkok would be very long and tiring."

Russia are chasing their third Davis Cup victory after wins in 2002 and 2006, while last year they were beaten finalists. Safin also pulled out of the 2007 final after a poor season, having won the deciding rubber the year before. Russia are already without 2002 hero Mikhail Youzhny, who is missing after failing to regain top form since missing the US Open with a neck injury. That leaves their fate in the hands of world number six Nikolay Davydenko, 20th-ranked Igor Andreev, Dmitry Tursunov (26) and Igor Kunitsyn, who is ranked 76 in the world. Argentina will be represented by D.Nalbandian, Del Potro, A.Calleri and Canas. Decent players last two, not very good. http://www.bet365.com offers us 1.53 on Argentina and 2.37 for Russians.

[Mr Intensity]

Re: Tennis: Davis Cup :welcome to PL radevd and great first post! I love Davis Cup, and the Argentina - Russia match should be good. Really fancy Argentina and the price is reasonable, I'll be doing a proper line up later in the week.