Today’s Men’s News (09/14) – Davis Cup

Written by: Staff on 14th September 2012

Today's Men's News (09/14) - Davis Cup |

Davis Cup

Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover.* The clay courts in Spain have been ready for a long time, but David Ferrer had to fly in from the U. S. Open semifinal. He perhaps needed a little while to get adjusted to the clay.

A little while, as in, one set. That’s how long it took him to get started against Sam Querrey. But once he got his clay footing, it was lights out. Ferrer beat Querrey 4-6 6-2 6-2 6-4 to give Spain a 1-0 lead on the Americans.

The second match was a lot tougher, but John Isner continued his depressing tendency toward five set swoons. Nicolas Almagro beat him 6-4 4-6 6-4 3-6 7-5. The Americans should win the doubles, but still, things look pretty black.

We don’t know what Juan Martin del Potro’s wrist feels like, but his team probably feels pretty good; he beat the Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek 6-4 6-4 6-2. But it looks as if he will have to test it again; Juan Monaco lost the day’s second match 6-1 4-6 1-6 6-4 6-4 to Tomas Berdych. Even if the Argentines win the doubles — which doesn’t seem like the greatest bet — the first reverse singles is to pit Berdych against del Potro. And if del Potro doesn’t play, the alternative is Carlos Berlocq. So the Argentines really need del Potro to play….

* Quote from A. E. Housman’s poem “Reveille,” in A Shropshire Lad, a portion of which is now apparently used as the title of a popular novel.

The Playoffs

The relegation matches mostly started off according to form. Or, rather, revised form. The first tie to finish on Friday was that between Japan and Israel — which took an unfortunate twist when Kei Nishikori came up unavailable. That meant that Tatsuma Ito became Japan’s #2, behind Go Soeda. Soeda did his job with a 6-2 6-4 3-6 6-4 win over Dudi Sela. But Ito was surprised by Amir Hadad 6-3 6-2 6-4. Given that the Israelis will probably win the doubles, that could get interesting if Nishikori can’t come around.

Next to finish for the day was the tie between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan — and, predictably, it’s tied. Denis Istomin beat Evgeny Korolev, although it took him five sets. Then Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin put things back level by beating Farrukh Dustov 6-2 6-4 3-6 7-6(7-5). The doubles will probably be decisive in that tie; can Istomin, supported only by Dustov, beat the more balanced Kazakh team of Golubev and Schukin?

The Dutch team made the interesting decision to play Thiemo de Bakker rather than Igor Sijsling at #2 singles. But one can only suspect that that was a sacrifice — why tire out Sijsling when he was going against Roger Federer anyway? It wasn’t much of a contest; Federer prevailed 6-3 6-4 6-4. Then came the one potentially interesting match of the tie, Stanislas Wawrinka against Robin Haase. And that did at least manage to last four sets. But Wawrinka prevailed 6-3 3-6 6-3 7-6. The Swiss are one match away, with Federer supposed to play the next two.

Lleyton Hewitt may be making a comeback — but hardly on clay. Florian Mayer handily beat him 7-5 6-3 6-2. Luckily for Australia, Bernard Tomic had already beaten Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 2-6 6-3 6-4 7-6.

Sweden, in the absence of Robin Soderling, not only failed to win a match, they failed to win a set. Steve Darcis opened by beating Michael Ryderstedt 6-3 7-6 6-0. Then David Goffin beat Andreas Vinciguerra 6-4 6-3 7-5. Unless the Belgians are hit with mass food poisoning or the like, that one is pretty much over. In fact, it was pretty much over before it started.

The Italy versus Chile tie was almost as predictable. It started with Andreas Seppi beating Guillermo Hormazabal 7-5 6-1 6-2. But then Paul Capdeville pulled a not-so-fast one. No, he didn’t beat Fabio Fognini — but he kept Fognini out there long enough that they had to suspend the match due to darkness at 1-1 in the fifth set.

South Africa’s best chance against Canada was probably their first match — and it came to nothing. Vasek Pospisil gave the Canadians a lead by beating Izak van der Merwe 6-3 6-4 6-4. And that turned things over to Milos Raonic. And South Africa couldn’t even answer with the #2 player on their team. Or maybe it was another case of sacrificing a point to save a player for a match where they had better hopes. South Africa’s #4 player, Nikala Scholtz, got the call. And lost 7-5 6-4 7-5, leaving Canada one point from advancing. And that’s with Daniel Nestor prepared to play doubles for them….

The contest between Brazil and Russia should have been one of the more interesting of the playoff ties, and by coincidence was also the last to start. But Igor Andreev dropped out of the first match, against Rogerio Dutra Silva, down 6-2 6-1. And Alex Bogomolov, Russia’s official #1, didn’t play, leaving it to Teymuraz Gabashvili to take on Thomaz Bellucci in the second singles. Bellucci put Brazil up 2-0 by winning 6-3 4-6 6-0 7-6.