The Davis Cup starts this weekend. The 16-team main group often provides the kinds of difficult situations which, if escaped, can truly set up the table for a winning campaign.
So far, we’ve mostly seen only doubles matches but we are awaiting a couple of singles showdowns to happen later on today. We’ll see Bernard Tomic take on American John Isner in a 7:00 PM ET start and then later, we’ll see Samuel Groth take on Jack Sock in the 9:00 PM ET showdown. In terms of the early results from doubles, we’ve see a couple of surprises as Novak Djokovic’s team took a loss. He’s playing with Nenad Zimonjic but they lost in straight sets to Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov. The other notable result of the was Andy Murray and his brother, Jamie Murray, getting a big win. They played the team of Yoshihito Nishioka and Yasutaka Uchiyama, but the Murrays won rather easily. They took care of business with a 6-3, 6-2 and 6-4 result. The French team of Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also got the job done as they toppled Philip Bester and Vasek Pospisil in straight sets, although they needed two tiebreakers to earn the win.
Last year, Great Britain escaped the United States in the first round. After that, the Brits were able to win their first Davis Cup in nearly 80 years.
Stars That Are Playing
There are a number of stars who have decided to commit to this first-round Davis Cup tie. Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Tomas Berdych, Kei Nishikori, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are all in the mix. So are Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet, and John Isner. Davis Cup is often seen as an event in which top singles players don’t want to go out of their way to make the extra commitment to their respective countries, but this first-round lineup of participating players indicates otherwise. It’s a very exciting and positive development for an event which sometimes gets saddled with lower-name players. There’s a lot more for the casual fan to be interested in, and that’s a plus for the sport of tennis.
Stars That Aren’t Playing
The Davis Cup comes just before the Indian Wells tournament, and some players either want to get ready for Southern California or are simply injured. Stan Wawrinka isn’t hurt, but he won’t play for Switzerland in Davis Cup. His teammate, Roger Federer, is injured and will not compete this weekend. Milos Raonic of Canada is out with an injury. Rafael Nadal of Spain is not playing. Nick Kyrgios of Australia is injured, and that has forced Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt into a unique position, which will be mentioned below in point number four.
Stars That Could Go Head To Head
This is the most enticing prospect of the whole weekend. Great Britain plays Japan in the first round, and with Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori both on their respective rosters, they could meet. They’re not going to play in the first two singles on Friday in England, and they’re not going to play in the doubles match on Saturday, but they will play in the reverse singles on Sunday if the tie is still live (in other words, if it’s 2-1 for one team – three match wins are needed to win the tie and advance to the quarterfinals). Expect fireworks in what will easily be the biggest singles match of the weekend.
Lleyton Hewitt Could Come Out Of Retirement
This is what was caused by the injury to Nick Kyrgios above. With the young gun out of the lineup, Australia is calling upon Bernard Tomic and Sam Groth in singles. Lleyton Hewitt had retired as a tennis player at the Australian Open in January, but for the doubles match this weekend against the United States and the Bryan Brothers, Hewitt – as captain – might call upon himself to play, thereby giving either Groth or Tomic a rest. This would spice up what already figures to be a thrilling weekend in Australia, which is hosting the tie.
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