Mens Tennis Forums banner

Davis Cup

110K views 2K replies 74 participants last post by  Brad1973 
#1 ·
I thought it might be useful to start a thread for Davis Cup discussions.

Next up is Ecuador, July 8-10.

So who do we send? (I am asking who we would send, not who Laurendeau will pick since many of his recent choices have been inscrutable, to put it politely).

Ecuador of course has long been looking forward to el bombardero: see http://www.diario-expreso.com/ediciones/2011/03/29/deportes/mas-deportes/el-bombardero-raonic/ (I like the fact that this piece suggests Raonic is the main reason for choosing clay – as if a Latin American country ever picked anything but clay against our guys!)

Apart from Raonic, Nestor is there of course, unless he is not available.

I don’t see any signs of players getting themselves ready for the clay (Pospisil, Polansky and Bester are all signed up for hard court challengers in the weeks of Wimbledon). And for the week of DC, Dancevic is signed up for Newport, where he has a QF to defend.

But really when you look at the players Ecuador has to choose from, you can understand that we wouldn’t be taking extreme measures to get ready: http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/Singles.aspx?d=06.06.2011&c=ECU&r=0#. The remaining Lapentti is the only guy they have in the top 350, and he seems to be having problems – recently he’s been retiring from a match almost as often as he completes one.

I would encourage Dancevic to play Newport, and go with Nestor and Pospisil in doubles and bring along Polansky, with a view to playing either Peter or Vasek in the singles.
 
See less See more
#683 ·
Also, apparently, the Italian doubles team with be Bracciali partnering Lorenzi and not Fognini.
I wouldn't even look at their doubles team to be honest. A lot of countries just name their 2 non singles players for the schedule and then change them when Saturday gets here. I believe Italy has done this before as well.

Then still could be planning on playing Fog
 
#685 ·
One of the reasons IMO we wanted to have Dancy take the S#2 slot on Friday, was to make sure that Vasek was fresh for the very important doubles. As soon as Dancy & Bolelli were out, the doubles probably became a toss up ... and thus even more important. I know hind sight is 20/20 but the decision to play Vasek Friday instead of Levine may be one we really regret.
 
#689 ·
I'm with you, though, but I didn't think of it till during the second set, where I told my wife that if he doesn't win this in straights, Seppi will win. There was definitely a difference in how Vasek played tired compared to in the past, such as against Sela. Likely the mono as well as the time off with mono.

But I don't think playing Jesse in doubles would help. Hopefully, Vasek was holding back a bit yesterday for today, he won't have to do that again today where Jesse can play tomorrow, and Vasek will therefore have more energy deeper into the match today. Either Italy goes for the same thing and plays Fognini, giving Jesse a decent chance tomorrow (should it matter then); or they play Lorenzi, who is a fairly weak doubles player.
 
Top