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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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#9 ·
If I were the Davis Cup coach, I'd keep Dancevic far away from the team. The guy is a mental midget and can't seem to his game going when it's needed.

My line up would be this
1st rubber nomination goes to Raonic
2nd rubber nomination goes to Polansky
doubles goes to Poposil/Nestor
4th goes to Polansky
and final rubber goes to Raonic.
 
#10 ·
Actually it doesn't work like that - you have to nominate your 1st and 2nd singles players (and the order has to conform to rankings) and then there is a draw to see whether Canada #1 will play Ecuador #2 on day 1 or vice versa.

Then on the 3rd day, the two team #1s play each other first, and the final rubber is the match between the team #2s. There are possible substitutions, but there is no way Raonic can be made to play the final rubber, since he is our top ranked player.
 
#22 ·
I agree with the decision to keep Peter off the Davis Cup team. He really hasn't done diddly squat this year so I think it's a good decision. When choosing the team, I believe you should always take your four hottest players. Canada hasn't always done that. I believe Milos and Vasek will play the singles with Bester playing doubles with Nestor. I could be wrong.
 
#27 ·
I like the team choice, Vasek and Phil have clearly been better this year than Peter, and deserve the spots. It'd be interesting to see who would fill in if there were an injury; not sure Peter would want to go as a fourth man, might be Diez in that case. In any case, I like Vasek or Phil's chances against Campozano, and beating the fellow #2 should really be enough for a #2 singles player with Milos playing.
 
#34 ·
you honestly expect Peter to win two matches with his form lately? really?!?!?! :rolleyes:
 
#37 ·
We have to consider the doubles point more or less in the bag with Nestor on board. Their number 2 Endara would have to play the tennis of his life to win both his matches. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt though and assume he takes one match.

That would mean we need to beat their number one guy once. It depends on many factors, but Peter would be more than capable of doing so. Davis Cup has a weird way of bringing out the best in struggling players - look at what Chardy did recently for France.
 
#39 ·
Hmm, unfortunate news :( Still think we should take the tie, but obviously it's a lot more uncertain now. I am glad to see the tie is actually at sea level; I was under the impression it was at altitude, which would have been even tougher, I think.

Is Lapentti actually playing? If so, I think it could be difficult, but if it's Campozano and Endara as singles players we should be able to win
 
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