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The Everything Davis Cup Thread (News, Articles, Live Scores)

162K views 2K replies 71 participants last post by  Armstrong2000 
#1 ·
I thought I'd start a new thread focused entirely on cheering on Australia back into the world group. They have just chosen Brisbane as the venue for our upcoming tie against Japan and its going to be played on clay! Should be interesting to see how our boys go on the dirt, obviously Luczak will feel right at home but Tomic, Ball, Gooch and co may struggle. I think Lleyton may be fit in time for the tie so the most logical team at this stage would be Hewitt and Luczak in the singles and Ball and Hanley/Gooch for the doubles.

I can't see Japan hurting us to badly especially if Rusty is fit and ready. Nishikori's elbow is still bothering him and if he somehow manages to play he will have no matchplay. Soeda is solid but I don't how he would fare on clay? May give Pete a tough match. Ito is their top ranked player at 201 but he has had a pretty poor start to the year and only just got the job done against the Phillipines, winning his last match in 5 sets. Suzuki is there darkhorse, he can still turn it on when he gets going.

Summing this up, we should progress here rather comfortably either 4-1 or 5-0 i'll predict.
 
#153 ·
Djokovic sinks Australia Davis cup hopes!

By preventing Federer from reaching the final Monday, Djokovic has make Australia's Davis cup hopes a blow. Had Federer reached the US Open final on Monday evening (Tuesday Australian time), it would have then presented Federer scheduling problems to be present at the Davis cup.
Federer would have needed to catch a flight departing Tuesday morning for the 20 hour plus journey that crosses the date line and arrives in Australia Thursday. With one day to adjust to a 10hour time zone change if Federer did make the trip it would be difficult for him to be at his peak, particularly on the Friday.
 
#158 ·
US Open defeat no guarantee Roger Federer will show up at Sydney Davis Cup fixture

ROGER Federer has refused to guarantee that he will line up for Switzerland in this week's Davis Cup World Group qualifier at Royal Sydney Golf Club.

After being eliminated from the US Open in a thrilling five-set semi final against Novak Djokovic, Federer said his recovery would dictate whether he can tackle the long trip Down Under and relative short turn around.

But he told Swiss reporters that he still wanted to take part because he was close to other players on the national team that arrived in Australia on Friday.

Federer's US Open defeat is a blessing in disguise for the Swiss, because it gives him an additional two days to recover.

Had he won and made the final he would have arrived in Sydney on the eve of the first rubber - at the very earliest. The tight schedule and long distance provoked a complaint from Federer last week, with the World No. 3 expressing his disappointment the tie wasn't held in Switzerland.

Australia have receive a boost, with Lleyton Hewitt appearing certain to fulfill his duties after overcoming his foot injury.

However, Federer promised he'll be hungry for success at January's Australian Open after his eight-year streak of winning at least one grand slam a season was snapped.

"Definitely I've had better seasons, but then again you can't play every season identical," said Federer after squandering a two sets to love lead to lose 6-7 (9-7) 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-5 to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the US Open semi-finals.

From 2003 through 2010, Federer won at least one grand slam.
 
#160 ·
Aussies aim to take down Wawrinka: Rafter

Davis Cup tennis captain Pat Rafter says Australia must take down Stanislas Wawrinka in order to counter the Federer factor in this week's Davis Cup World Group tennis play-off against Switzerland.

The winner, on grass at Royal Sydney Golf Club starting on Friday, will be promoted to the World Group for next year.

Tennis Australia officials expect Swiss No.1 Roger Federer to participate after losing his US Open semi-final to Novak Djokovic.

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Rafter expects the former world No.1 to be fired up.

"Yes, he's not coming down here to stuff around, he wants to win," Rafter told reporters at Royal Sydney on Monday.

"It's a long way to come, as he said earlier in the week, and obviously he's coming in very late, so he's here to win.

"That obviously puts us under a lot more pressure. He's obviously one of the greatest grass-courters of all time but we're looking at trying to take down Wawrinka."

Rafter said Australia was always likely to struggle against Federer on any surface and he hoped the home side could win the two singles matches against Wawrinka and the doubles.

While opting to play on grass against a team including six-times Wimbledon champion Federer would appear a gamble, Rafter stressed the choice of surface had more to do with Wawrinka, Switzerland's No.2.

Ranked 14th in the world, Wawrinka has a 9-13 career record on grass and a 1-2 record this year.

The two losses both came against players ranked over 100 places lower than the right-hander.

"We have to look at what's our best chance of winning this Davis Cup tie and obviously playing Federer on any surface is not great," Rafter said.

"So we look at what is Wawrinka's worst surface and he does not like grass.

"If we've got any chance of beating these guys we have to take down Wawrinka."

Rafter was pleased with the hitting of team stalwart Lleyton Hewitt, who missed the US Open through injury.

"He said to me about three days ago it's the first time he hasn't felt his toe in a long time, so if he could play on grass every week of the year, he'd be a very happy boy," Rafter said.

Conversely, Australia's highest ranked player Bernard Tomic looked listless in his practice hit with Hewitt on Monday.

"That's Bernie isn't it? He's all over the shop sometimes," Rafter said.

"It's one thing we're working on all the time with him, is pick his attitude up, pick his game up."

Rafter described the court as beautiful, though he said it would like it a little firmer.

He revealed Matthew Ebden was pressing Marinko Matosevic for the last place in the team alongside Hewitt, Tomic and Chris Guccione.
 
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