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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.
 
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#950 ·
Our possible opponents: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Kazakhstan.

With Brazil we get home tie, I believe rest would be coin toss (I think .. played away last against GB & Australia but that was in 60's so don't think it counts).

Given when this is (beginning of March), for travel reasons I think I'm ok with anything except away ties against Australia or Kazakhstan ... that would be ugly for Milos, Vasek, and Daniel between IW and European / American HC season. Of course, ideally we also don't have to play on clay in R1 (eg. Belgium away ) but that's not the end of the world. Clay for R2 would be ok as it is good transition to European HC season.

Question: Does GB have indoor grass courts? That wouldn't be nice for R1 either.
 
#955 ·
Kazakhstan is close to Europe, so the transition isn't an issue there. Not sure how clay is a good transition for HC.

For me Germany is possibly the toughest matchup, but their Fed is such a mess right now who knows who will actually play the tie for them. Britain is of course tough because Andy will probably win the singles, but if Scotland goes independent will Andy still play for GB?
 
#956 ·
If its a home tie, I bet they go with Vancouver ... best for players since it is close / same time zone as IW.

re: Kazakhstan, there is a 13hr time difference between that & LA .. huge jet lag .. probably as bad as Australia ... and getting to & from Kazakhstan probably aint that flexible.

re: clay not good transition, yah I agree right in middle of HC season isn't good .. I guess I was just saying that bad travel was more the concern
 
#964 · (Edited)
I wouldn't go that far as Kei is very good indoors too, it's also the surface that we played Japan on this year there, so it's playing right into their hands, or have you forgot that already, plus Vasek can probably give Kei more of a game than Milos, Milos is not much of a match for a healthy Kei on any surface, just a bad matchup for Milos, face facts.
 
#967 ·
I would love to see a Canada/USA tie. I mean, when's the last time we played the Americans? in the 60s? Last time I checked if we play them again, apparently, the tie would take place in Canada because we played last time in USA.

Milos can beat any of the American players pretty handidly and even Pospisil has already beaten Isner before, America's no.1 player. The doubles is a toss-up. We could beat the Bryans with Nestor/Pospisil.
 
#973 ·
Milos will be the favourite in both his singles matches against Belgium (probably against Goffin and Darcis). If he can win those, they'd just need 1 more out of the doubles or Vasek to advance. Of course, that may be more trouble than it appears as Vasek hasn't won a match on clay since RG 2013 qualifying against Dancevic.
 
#974 ·
It's probably better that it's a road tie in Belgium being the week after Wimbledon. They won't have to travel as far.

I think they win this off of Raonic and the doubles. There is not a lot that scares me of the Belgium team right now. Though I reserve the right to change that based off the clay season.


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#983 ·
Belgium do alright in doubles, and as we just saw vs. Japan, Canada are quite beatable there pretty much no matter who they play.

If it's on clay, Dancy should play singles, as he's better than Pospy on it, though you'd maybe think Vashy would perform well there the way he slides on HC, have him play doubles.
 
#975 ·
Actually looking at it again, they have fortunate scheduling for both the QFs and SFs. For QFs as I said above they are travelling to Belgium from London (instead of to Canada), and then if they advance to the SFs no matter who they face it'll be a home tie the week after US Open. The last time they played each of Serbia, Argentina and Brazil was a road tie for Canada.
 
#976 ·
IMO the road tie in Belgium the week after Wimby could be potentially challenging for Milos. If Milos makes a deep run at the slam, he'll have made transition from clay -> grass -> real quick back to clay -> then HC in US. Not ideal.

Where the schedule may help, is if Djoker after a deep run on grass has to decide if he wants to do the same ... with a LONG trip to Argentina to boot (assuming Delbonis wins today). Given he's already won DC for Serbia before, he may take a pass. Which would be a golden opportunity for Canada (we'd be favoured all the way to the finals).


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#985 ·
IMO the road tie in Belgium the week after Wimby could be potentially challenging for Milos. If Milos makes a deep run at the slam, he'll have made transition from clay -> grass -> real quick back to clay -> then HC in US. Not ideal.

Where the schedule may help, is if Djoker after a deep run on grass has to decide if he wants to do the same ... with a LONG trip to Argentina to boot (assuming Delbonis wins today). Given he's already won DC for Serbia before, he may take a pass. Which would be a golden opportunity for Canada (we'd be favoured all the way to the finals).


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I don't know if they would be favoured vs. Arg on clay.
 
#977 ·
Goffin is hard to figure. Good results in 2012, big losing streak in 2013, remarkable winning streak in 2014 (though largely in challengers). He doesn't have a lot of big wins, though he did beat Raonic last fall. All the singles matches, even Goffin-Pospisil, are winnable for Canada. They are all losable too. Belgium has a big weakness in the doubles. That could be the difference.

I can't help but get excited for the rest of the year. Great Britain has a real chance at beating France right after Wimbledon...
 
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