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.
Australian Davis Cup captain Patrick Rafter said he would wait until Sunday morning to see if Hewitt’s foot was able to carry him into the second reverse singles.
The draw for the 2011 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group play-offs, which will take place the same weekend as the World Group semifinals on 16-18 September, was held today at the International Tennis Federation’s headquarters in London.
The winning nations in the World Group play-offs qualify for the 2012 World Group, while the losing nations will compete in their respective Zonal Group I competitions in 2012.
Seedings for the draw were based on the latest ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking, which measures a nation’s success over the last four years of the competition and is published following every World Group round.
World Group Play-offs Draw
Romania v CZECH REPUBLIC
RUSSIA* v Brazil
ISRAEL* v Canada
South Africa* v CROATIA
CHILE v Italy
Japan v INDIA
Belgium v AUSTRIA
Australia v SWITZERLAND
#Switzerland's #DavisCup team for play-off against #Australia confirmed: Federer, Wawrinka, Bohli, Chiudinelli. Our team will be announcement tomorrow.
Lleyton Hewitt and Bernard Tomic will spearhead Australia’s challenge against a powerful Swiss team in their Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Play-off tie on the grass courts of the Royal Sydney Golf Club next week.
The Australians also named big serving Melbourne left-hander Chris Guccione and talented Victorian Marinko Matosevic in their four-man team to do battle against a Swiss team comprising Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka, Stephane Bohli and Marco Chiudinelli under the captaincy of Severin Luthi.
Australian Davis Cup captain Pat Rafter is confident Hewitt will be fit and said they (he and coach Tony Roche) had chosen the team based on form, fitness and the surface.
“Lleyton missed the US Open and has arrived in Sydney nice and early to get the best possible preparation. He is a fighter and I am confident he will get his body right for the tie,” Rafter said.
“Obviously there is a watching brief on Marinko and his ankle. If he doesn’t come up we will make a late change. But we want to give him every opportunity to prove his fitness.”
Matosevic was first to withdraw from his first-round match at the US Open when he injured his ankle in the first set. The Australians have added West Australian Matt Ebden to the squad on standby and he will be in Sydney training with the team.
Popular veteran Peter Luczak is also in the squad as a hitting partner as is the designated “orange boy” (junior hitting partner) former world number one junior Jason Kubler.
“We want to get them on the grass, in front of our home crowd and fight like hell to win this tie. All of our guys have been picked because they play well on grass. We are the underdogs but we don’t mind that at all. This is a very determined bunch of guys,” Rafter said.
I'm so shocked Federer is going to travel so far down to Australia at this time of year.
Hopefully the rain delays in New York will keep him there long enough to decide to pull out of Davis Cup. We'd take down a Wawrinka-only Swiss team!
Also, historically we would always be a guarenteed doubles winner every tie (mainly due to Woodbridge). Look how sad our doubles line-ups are these days! Paul Hanley should be in the tie at least to give us some credibility. What will our doubles team be? Guccione/Hewitt? Like Hewitt hasn't got enough on his plate trying to be fit for singles. Guccione/Matosevic? Please, get your shit together Pat!
LLEYTON Hewitt continues to make strong progress towards regaining fitness and form for next week's Davis Cup showdown with Switzerland in Sydney.
But there are concerns more rain at the US Open may scuttle Roger Federer's hopes of appearing for the Swiss team.
Australian captain Pat Rafter said last night Hewitt had been impressive on the Royal Sydney Golf Club grasscourts, having experimented with softer shoes to help overcome chronic foot soreness.
Rafter was confident the most successful player in Australian Davis Cup history would be fit for next Friday's start of the tie.
"He's going really well, actually," he said.
Rafter said Marinko Matosevic (ankle) continued to strive for fitness, while Australia's top-ranked player, Bernard Tomic, was building toward a strong performance.
So now Australia winning a Davis Cup tie comes down to how well.....Djokovic plays?
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