Davis Cup 2007

[davis]

assgrabber said:

We're gonna rock! And the guys too of course

Oh, we'll definitely rock more than the guys, LOL!!! ;D
Who would've thought we'll meet again so soon, Lena! Can't wait !

[Mitya'sGirl]

Hey, Annete! Can't wait too!
Hold on, Luzhniki! ;D

P.S. Don't forget ur cam

[Annie]

For those who are following other ties also From DC's official site

USA names unchanged team, Nalbandian returns

USA Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe has announced an unchanged team of Andy Roddick, James Blake, and Bob and Mike Bryan for its World Group quarterfinal against Spain in Winston-Salem on 6-8 April.

This will be the sixth tie in a row that the same four players have been called up to the USA Davis Cup team. "There's no surprises with our line-up. The guys have a great team mentality," said McEnroe, who also announced that Mardy Fish and Donald Young would join the four as practice partners for the tie.

Spanish captain Emilio Sanchez is expected to name his team on Monday.

According to reports, world No. 11 David Nalbandian will return to Argentina’s Davis Cup squad for its quarterfinal tie in Sweden.

Nalbandian chose to miss Argentina’s 4-1 victory over Austria in the first round, having played a starring role in Argentina’s 2006 campaign, in which he won eight out of ten rubbers, including both his singles matches in the final, which his team narrowly lost to Russia in Moscow.

While nations do not have to officially nominate their four-man teams to the ITF until Tuesday March 27th, Argentine captain Alberto Mancini announced that Guillermo Canas, Juan del Potro and Sebastian Prieto would also line-up for the tie. Jose Acasuso who played in the first round tie reportedly asked not to be considered for the tie in Sweden due to a lack of recent form. Eduardo Schwank will join the squad as practice partner.

In zonal ties, Paradorn Srichaphan will miss Thailand’s clash with Japan in Asia/Oceania Zone Group I with a wrist injury, according to the Bangkok Post while Brazil’s new Davis Cup captain Francisco Costa is said to be considering selecting three-time Roland Garros champion Gustavo Kuerten as part of his team to play Canada.

[jenhatter06]

From the DC official site ...

Battle of the greatest captains?

For the third time in three years, Russia and France meet in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas, and it once more pits against each other the two most respected Davis Cup captains of the current era.

The achievements of Shamil Tarpischev and Guy Forget are being written into the folklore of the 107-year-old competition with every passing year. Indeed some might say they are the greatest captains the competition has known. That is an impossible claim to substantiate, because how do you compare today’s captains with the extraordinary achievements of the legendary Australian Harry Hopman, who captained his nation for 21 years, winning the cup 16 times? Times have changed so much since Hopman’s day that it’s like comparing apples with tennis balls.

Hopman never helped to run a country as Tarpischev did when he was Boris Yeltsin’s close aide in the Kremlin in the early 1990s as Russia established its fragile statehood out of the embers of the collapsed Soviet Union. And Hopman, good player though he was, never scored as memorable a victory on court as Forget’s over Pete Sampras in 1991 to give France their first Davis Cup triumph in 59 years.

Hopman’s record as a captain is almost beyond comprehension, but two things must be remembered. Firstly, in his day (1949-69) the champions always went through to the next year’s final (the Challenge Round), so in all but five years of his reign Australia only had one tie to play. Secondly, he was helped by a conveyor belt of champions – from Frank Sedgman, through Lew Hoad and Rod Laver, to John Newcombe and Tony Roche – that would make Tarpischev and Forget, or any other captain, green with envy.

Nevertheless, both the men who will sit courtside at the Luzhniki indoor arena have maximised the forces available to them with great tactical and man management skill – an increasingly difficult task in an age when the stars play for their country because they want to, not because they are told to. Hopman laid down laws with a draconian fist that today’s captains would never dream of trying to use.

“Captains have to realise that the game has changed dramatically in that respect,” says John Lloyd, who captains Great Britain’s Davis Cup team in the Euro-African Zone 1, also over the Easter weekend. “You can’t issue orders like Hopman did. You have to accept that most players have coaches of their own and listen to their needs, but in the final analysis you have to make decisions that you believe are correct, no matter what the consequences.”

Neither Tarpischev nor Forget have been afraid to make tough calls. Forget never went as far as his predecessor, Yannick Noah, who fired a player from his team because “he looked so miserable”, but he did read the riot act to some cliques within his squad after France lost to Australia in the 1999 final. By the time the French journeyed to Melbourne just two years later, Forget had created such a good team spirit that Nicolas Escude, aided by Cedric Pioline and Fabrice Santoro in the doubles, led France to a memorable triumph over Australia on a grass court laid in the Rod Laver Arena. The way Forget fashioned that victory set him apart as a captain of the highest order.

Tarpischev has vastly more experience than Forget. He first captained the Soviet Union back in 1974 when the global political and economic – let alone sporting – climate was totally different. Despite having some quality players like Alex Metreveli, it was a struggle to compete with the major tennis nations in those days, and it was not until the mid-1990s, while Tarpischev was still occupied with affairs in the Kremlin, that the new Russia started reaching Davis Cup finals. Vadim Borosov captained the Russian team that lost to Sweden in 1994, and Yevgeny Kafelnikov’s coach Anatoly Lepeshin was in the chair when the USA beat Russia a year later.

Tarpischev had a major role to play in the 2002 final. The undemonstrative captain, who normally says little to his players during matches, persuaded the 20-year-old Mikhail Youzhny that the decisive fifth rubber was not a lost cause when he trailed France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu by two sets. Youzhny bounced back to post the only victory from two sets down in a Davis Cup final’s fifth rubber.

Yet it was last September, when Russia hosted the USA in the semifinals, that Tarpischev established himself as one of the shrewdest Davis Cup leaders in history. He looked at the world No. 3, Nikolay Davydenko, for whom a claycourt had been laid in Moscow’s Olympic Stadium, decided he wasn’t fit enough to play, and dropped him (by some accounts, not everyone in the Russian camp agreed). Youzhny, taking Davydenko’s place, proved his captain right by defeating James Blake. For his next trick, Tarpischev replaced Youzhny for the first reverse singles against Andy Roddick with the unproven claycourter, Dmitry Tursunov. Right again. Tursunov produced the performance of his life, serving Roddick off the court in the first two sets before squeaking a dramatic victory 17-15 in the fifth.

Tarpischev needed to be less bold in the final, but the pivotal rubber proved to be the doubles, in which his gamble of picking Tursunov to partner Marat Safin again paid off. Tarpischev’s players did the work in Russia’s second Davis Cup by BNP Paribas title, but it was a captain’s victory too for the remarkable 59-year-old.

[Patxy]

Nominations for World Group Quarterfinal Ties
DC Website - 27mar07

www.daviscup.com/news/newsarticle.asp?id=14139

The ITF has announced the official nominations for the four World Group quarterfinal ties on 6-8 April, and these can be found below.

Live scoring for all World Group ties will be available on the Davis Cup website throughout the weekend of 6-8 April, along with the usual array of reports, photos, and interviews. There will also be reports from the draw for each tie on 5 April.

As action unfolds around the world, you will also be able to access a radio-style update through Davis Cup Radio, the official audio service of the competition, rounding up all the Davis Cup news and results. There will be reaction from players as well as expert analysis from the Tennis Radio Network, who will be providing the daily show.

RUSSIA v FRANCE
Venue: Moscow, Russia (clay – indoors)

RUSSIA
Igor Andreev
Nikolay Davydenko
Marat Safin
Mikhail Youzhny
Captain: Shamil Tarpischev

FRANCE
Arnaud Clement
Richard Gasquet
Michael Llodra
Paul-Henri Mathieu
Captain: Guy Forget

BELGIUM v GERMANY
Venue: Ostend, Belgium (clay-indoors)

BELGIUM
Dick Norman
Christophe Rochus
Olivier Rochus
Kristof Vliegen
Captain: Julian Hoferlin

GERMANY
Tommy Haas
Michael Kohlmann
Florian Mayer
Alexander Waske
Captain: Patrik Kuhnen

USA v SPAIN
Venue: Winston-Salem, NC, USA (hard – indoors)

USA
Andy Roddick
James Blake
Mike Bryan
Bob Bryan
Captain: Patrick Mc Enroe

SPAIN
David Ferrer
Feliciano Lopez
Tommy Robredo
Fernando Verdasco
Captain: Emilio Sanchez

SWEDEN v ARGENTINA
Venue: Gothenburg, Sweden (carpet – indoors)

SWEDEN
Jonas Bjorkman
Thomas Johansson
Robert Linstedt
Robin Soderling
Captain: Mats Wilander

ARGENTINA
Guillermo Canas
Juan Martin Del Potro
David Nalbandian
Sebastian Prieto
Captain: Alberto Mancini

[Dina]

oh gosh I really really hope marat will be a single player!!!!!!!!I'm having vacations and I'll be able to see our boy!plz tarpi trust him again!!!!!!!!anyway I think they're all equal right now due to their catastroph at miami!

[Dina]

I've just read a very recent interview of Eurosport with Davydenko, and I don't know if it's a strategy but I really think the man is weirdest than I thought!It's astonishing i'll try to translate from french to english as soon as possible!

[Dina]

Davydenko:"A good training"

Nikolay Davydenko will have the right of an intership preparation for the exceptinnal clay season.During a week he's gonig to be part of the Davis Cup quarter final.Provocating, to the scorn limit, the russian number 1 isn't doubting of the group's quality which is going to host France.

Davis Cup 2007(6,7 and 8 april)

Russia-France
[glow=red,2,300]Nikolay, you're usually palying Davis Cup since 2003.Is this competition a part of your priorties in a season?[/glow]
No.And this year, it's even the last of my priorities! I'm part of this quarter final, because behind there's the clay season which begins.And I consider this tie as a good preparation.I didn't know where to practice after Miami.So, being able to do it in Moscow, it's really good,all the more so since i'll be able to spend a whole week there.For personnal reasons, I need to usually come back to Russia.So, i'll be in the same time there, play some matches and have good sensations before the tournament of Monte-Carlo.
[glow=red,2,300]
Was the DC a competition which you've dreamed of when you were a child?[/glow]
No, for the good and simple reason that i never dream about anything.I don't care. It has never happened to me.In tennis, i've never told myself:"I would like to achieve some or some".All what counts for me is to play and play again, to win and win again.
[glow=red,2,300]
Your captain, Shamil Tarpischev has a proper style which amazes sometimes.And neverthless he gets excellents results...How do you explain it?[/glow]
It's because we are really good players!We Russians fight until the last point.He's got a great team, that's all.

[glow=red,2,300]What are rightly the relations between the players, within the russian team?Would you say you are friends, mates or teammates?[/glow]
We're just ordinary people, as anyone else on the tour.Ok, we practice together, but it stops here.There's nothing special.We can't allow ourselves to it.It's not like we get up ant take the breakfast together and then relax.
Normally, on the tour, i take my family and friends to be able to relax.But in DC, no. Nobody should unfocus.We remain focused on the tie, on the match we will play, and not on what's going on around.It will be stupide, i think there's the secret to well play on DC.

[glow=red,2,300]What will be, according to you, the key's tie?[/glow]It's will be played on the faculty of both teams to play on clay and to do the transition after the season on hard.It will be very tough because we will all miss time to do a good preparation.We would have had only three or four days to get used to the surfaces changement.So the decisive question will be to know who will be capable tu run more on clay.

[glow=red,2,300]Guy Forget considers that Russia is far away favourite against his team.Do you agree?[/glow]
In tennis, you can never predict what will happen.You know we can as exemple all four get sick and then France will win!Whatever what will happen, we will fight.It's at Moscow, at home, on clay, which is a good surface choice for us.We will do everything to win, but if we're unlucky at the final, it won't be a problem for me.It won't prevent me to move on on the tournament after.

[glow=red,2,300]Richard Gasquet estimates that Russia is currently the best team in the world...[/glow]
Maybe, in fact.Anyway when we're playing at home, it's certain.Only see what we did against Argentina in the final last year.It's true that we're all healthy, nobody's wounded...
And concerning Marat, with him we never know.But i see that in DC he always plays his best tennis.I don't know why, but in this competition he manages to concentrate more than on any other tournament.And when in plus it's in Moscow he plays really well.

You spoke about your victory last year on Agentina,which place does it take in your career?
I won't say it's the best memory of my career,because Argentina didn't have a soo good team last year; apart Nalbandian.It was him who gave them the two points, that's all.Calleri and Chela didn't play as well as him and their double wasn't strong.That's why we won, so the victory isn't soo particular.

[glow=red,2,300]You're having a particular relationship with France: you had there your fist success in a MS, last year at Bercy; you played there your first Grand Slam semifinal, in 2005 and now you have a French textile equipment supplier..Is it a chance?[/glow]
I don't know, maybe the French actually like me!It's maybe because Russia beats France at each time, who knows?I play good in France,yes...Concerning my textile equipment supplier, they also signed with Nadia Petrova, another Russian.She and me, that's all!I don't think they chose too badly!It's also a good way to promote France abroad, and it's also a good promotion for me, that's sure.

[Dina]

SAFINNO1 i'm sorry boy i haven't noticed!you speak French?

[Annie]

eurm niiiiice we have two translations of the same article LOL, you guys are good ;D Thanks for both.

I don't find Kolya weird at all, in fact I actually admire the guy for speaking his mind and not caring what anyone else thinks, it's the way he thinks and whoever doesn't like it - can stuff it LOL, I love this total indifference of other people's opinion about him. Marat says when they're training altogether they all feel as a team, they have fun and Kolya is a very funny guy and I tend tp believe him, I saw them altogether and they're great, but that's as far as it goes, they are a wonderful team but they all have their own lives and not many communicate closely outside the court. Nothing wrong with that...

Thanks again for the translations

[Dina]

yep, not weird but brave!hehe he has to be tough to not care at all about DC! i got shocked coz for me DC it's pretty the most important competition on the world!!!definitely! and my biggest dream is to see MY country winning it someday! meanwhile i'm cheering for Russia which is my "spiritual country" lol! i'm the weird one here!

[Annie]

Hahahahaha dina seeing you're from Paris it's very patriotic (NOT! ) to be cheering for Mother Russia but you're not the only one who does that LMAO ;D

Draw will be made on Thursday at noon in Luzhniki

[sandra]

Is there a live stream of these Davis Cup matches on Internet? I hope so because I really want to see it.
Last year I watched the final at www.livetv.ru. Maybe they do it again.

[Elisabeth]

Mer posted those pics on MTF

Marat and his dad

[Dina]

thanx elisabeth for the pics!they're well fantazying!!!!!!!!!lol!and hum hum Annie sweety I'm not a french!by the way i'm not a treator God prevent!so DAVAI RUSSIA! RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA ...........I'm feeling the same hystery waw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!