The Davis Cup looms large – as it should (photo: Planells)
Barely has the sexy presence of Radek Stepanek finished taking his shirt off than the Davis Cup is back with us for 2013.
While a combination of injuries/scheduling/fall outs and squabbles has deprived us of (in ranking order), Roger Federer, David Ferrer, Juan Martin Del Potro, Janko Tipsarevic, Nicolas Almagro, Tommy Haas and Kei Nishikori from among the world’s top 30 players, there is still plenty to get stuck into.
UNLIKELY WORLD GROUP WARRIORS
There are lots of “lesser lights” who will be thrown into atmospheres of nationalistic fervour and the chance to test themselves over 5 sets. Lukas Rosol (who he) will, more than likely, now play an integral part in the start of the Czech defence of the trophy, in Switzerland, where his singles with Henri Laaksonen may prove key.
Albert Ramos could feature for Spain against Canada, who are relying on Vasek Pospisil as their second singles man after his ranking flat lined outside the top 100 in 2012. . Israel look to have major problems as they prepare to take on France with Amir Weintraub struggling with a leg problem, though he has passed himself fit, but with Andy Ram out of the doubles Noam Okun has come out of retirement to join the squad.
Then there’s Kazakhstan-Austria arguably features two of the weakest teams in the World Group.The Kazakhs have Mikhail Kukushkin, who is returning from hip surgery, the hopelessly out of form Andrey Golubev and a man outside the top 200 in Evgeny Korolev. Perm two from three against Andreas Haider-Maurer and Jurgen Melzer on indoor clay. The mind is boggling, as maybe the Astana natives are in anticipation. Someone, almost by default, will earn credit.
Fabio Fognini against Ivan Dodig in the Italy-Croatia tie has potential to be a good one.
There’s one match up away from the World Group that stands out. In the Euro-African section where Poland (Janowicz and Kubot, plus the doubles duo of Fyrstenberg & Matkowski) face Slovenia (Zemlja, Bedene and Kavcic
SULKS AND SPATS
It’s not just Juan Martin Del Potro that can have “ideological differences” when it comes to playing Davis Cup matches.
Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko was murmuring things aren’t as they seem after Martin Klizan pulled out of their match with Ukraine, where Alexandr Dolgopolov took plenty of coaxing to take part. Romania’s Victor Hanescu priced himself out of their tie with Freddie Nielsen’s Denmark, according to the national federation anyway, and most of India’s leading players have carried out their promise not to take part in the match with South Korea.
Mahesh Bhupati and Somdev Devvarman are the leading stay aways after detailing their frustrations to the National Federation. For those who know their Indian tennis politics it may be no surprise that Leander Paes is the most high profile of the nominated quartet..
SQUIRRELS IMPOSSIBLE CLIMB
Loic Didavi is big in Benin (photo: Auburn Montgomery University)
The state of African tennis is illustrated with a look down the Davis Cup pyramid. South Africa occupy Euro-Africa Zone I (and are not playing in this round). Tunisia and Malek Jaziri are in action in Group 2, as for the first time are Benin.
Benin, squeezed in between Nigeria and Togo, is not renowned as a great sporting nation. It’s never had an Olympic medal to celebrate. Perhaps the best known fact about Benin is that the national football (soccer) team have been known as the “Squirrels”, and have made the occasional foray into the Africa Cup of Nations finals.
They took on this nickname with the theory being it’s a small animal that climbs high. As a country of 9.500,000 (or so) Francophone residents, it’s not one of the continent’s biggest.
Benin’s four man team of Loic Didavi (2-7), Alexis Klegou (5-11) and Theophile (0-3) & Tunde Segodo (0-3) have a lifetime combined record in futures of 7-24.
Didavi, 25, has played college tennis for Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama, while Klegou has worked with former ATP pro Steve Denton at Texas A&M. He’s a French born player.
Details on the doubles pair of Segodos are sketchier. Tunde, who’s18, lost his qualifying opener in the Eddie Herr Junior event in Florida. Theophile is 24.
With these sketchy CV’s, they have to travel to Portugal where they face a current top 100 player, Joao Sousa, and former one Rui Machado. It could be brutal.
