[Gonzil]

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/edicio...ardero-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...011&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.

[misty1]

who i think will be chosen and who i think should be chosen are the same:

peter is supposedly the best clay courter for canadians right? so probably him and milos and then daniel..and then probably vasek

[Ravel]

Milos and Daniel are locks

Vasek should be there to play doubles with Daniel.

And right now, I'd say Frank as our #2 just because he's actually had positive clay results.

[Ravel]

although, if Frank has Newport QF to defend, I'd say that should be his priority.

[Dudisela75]

Milos, Daniel, Frank and Vasek. If Frank isn't available then Peter.

[Emeraldhands]

I agree with you Sela.

[156mphserve]

Milos and Peter(or Vasek) for singles and Nestor and Vasek(or Milos) for doubles. Frank should go defend his Newport points

[Snowwy]

Originally Posted by Dudisela75

Milos, Daniel, Frank and Vasek. If Frank isn't available then Peter.

Agree.

ML will do something dumb though and Raonic will probably be forced into playing doubles as well. He is a true clown.

[tommyg6]

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.

[Gonzil]

Originally Posted by tommyg6

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.

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.

[milosraonicfan]

Originally Posted by Gonzil

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.

Any line up suggest then???

[Gonzil]

Originally Posted by milosraonicfan

Any line up suggest then???

The main challenge I see is that we don't have any #2 player that I would be confident would beat Lapentti. So I am figuring that we will likely need to count on Raonic winning both his singles and our winning the doubles, in order to avoid it coming down to the 5th rubber (which is never desirable, although I think we should definitely be able to win it.)

Let's assume we send Dancevic to Newport and we have Nestor, Raonic, Pospisil and Polansky. Based on experience, Polansky should have the better chance of beating Lapentti, but given his recent form, I wouldn't be too optimistic. Plus a loss, especially a bad loss, would probably undermine his confidence even further, making him useless for the 5th rubber if it comes down to that. So I would nominate Pospisil as #2 - this would give him experience playing his first live singles rubber, without too much pressure on him.

Then I would hope he is drawn to play first so that he can rest up, as I would play Nestor and Pospisil in dubs.

And if it comes down to the 5th rubber, I would likely play Polansky, but that might change depending on how he and Pospisil are performing.

[milosraonicfan]

Who is Adil Shamasdin???
Who is this guy?? He has no pic on http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/P...Shamasdin.aspx ... He is #71 in doubles which is pretty good!!! Who is he? Y doesn't he play in davis cup for us>??

[Gonzil]

Lapentti just retired again - after winning just 1 game in wimby qualies. You gotta wonder if he is going to be able to play a 5-setter. It would be pretty sad if he had to retire in a Davis Cup match.

[Blarghman]

Originally Posted by Dudisela75

Milos, Daniel, Frank and Vasek. If Frank isn't available then Peter.

Like others, I think you nailed it here. However, I suspect ML will send Milos, Daniel, Frank and Peter, given Frank's involvement.