Tennis pundits, who make their living writing about tennis, then probably watch more football than tennis, often fret that the best players don’t play Davis Cup.  They claim the reason is the scheduling which usually starts a week after a Slam (the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the US Open, and the year-end championship).  Most players that make it that far often spend a week in recovery, if not more.

Even so, countries that win don’t worry about whether the other team can field their best players.  In American football, do they postpone the Superbowl so players can rest and heal?  In a way, these injuries are part of the game.  And in case, Davis Cup is almost as much about the little guy, the small country that can’t field a strong team, beating the highly ranked team, even if that matchup may be missing top players (e.g., Nadal from the Davis Cup finals).

Let’s look at the matches so far:

United States vs. Brazil

Sam Querrey spent most of 2012 trying to get his rank up as he had been injured back in 2011.  John Isner had a recent injury that forced him to skip the Australian Open.  They faced Brazil in the US.  Brazil’s best player is Thomaz Bellucci.  Had the surface been clay, this might have been a serious match, but apparently Querrey and Isner were more than up to the challenge.

Querrey beat Bellucci in straight sets on Day 1 while Isner beat Thiago Alves in straight sets.

The Brazilian doubles team of Melo and Soares is a veteran doubles team having been together for more than 5 years.  Even so, they aren’t in the elite teams.  They’ve never reached a Slam final and have only reached the semis once in their career.  Even so, they more than held their own.  With the Bryans having a comfortable lead in the tiebreak, the Brazilian duo hung tough, and won the tiebreak instead, and the Americans knew they were in for a long day.

The two alternated sets with the US taking the second set in a tiebreak, then Brazil taking the third set, then US taking the fourth set, before Brazil took the final set, 6-3.

This match could still be interesting if Bellucci can put up something of a fight, though Querrey should be able to close out the fifth match if it comes to that.

US leads 2-1

Switzerland vs. Czech Republic

Although Roger Federer said he hasn’t ruled out playing Davis Cup, his loyalty seems to lie in playing the relegation round to save Switzerland from falling out of the World Group (Davis Cup has countries placed in tiers, with the highest tier being the World Group) usually because that involves only a single round of play, often against a weak opponent.

Despite that, Roger Federer chose not to play the opening round of Davis Cup this year.  Last year, he showed up but mostly because the Olympics has requirements to play Davis Cup.  The Swiss promptly lost to the Americans, and Federer was off the hook again.

So, the Swiss had to play Stan Wawrinka as the #1 player.  Severin Luthi, Davis Cup coach, took an unusual pick for #2.  The #2 Swiss player is Chiudinelli, but his rank is so low, that he was likely to lose to Tomas Berdych, and the thought was to rest him to play doubles instead.  So they picked Henri Laaksonen whose rank is just a shade above 300.  Although born in Finland, he currently represents Switzerland.  The one advantage of Laaksonen is that he is only 20, so if he can improve, he might be a solid number 2, while Chiudinelli is much closer in age to Federer.

Normally, the Czechs would be favored because Radek Stepanek is ranked about 40 which is higher than any other player Switzerland could offer (given Federer wasn’t planning to play).  Alas, Stepanek was injured, so he couldn’t play.  Lukas Rosol, who was last seen celebrating Czech Republic’s victory over Spain in the Davis Cup finals last year, was given the go as the second player.

This meant each country had one top player and one OK player and the burden was falling on the lead players.

On the first day, Berdych beat Laaksonen, but it took 4 sets before Berdych calmly dispatched his opponent in a 6-1 fourth set.  Meanwhile, Wawrinka, fresh off his 5-set thriller loss to Djokovic, claimed a win over Lukas Rosol in straight sets.

Both sides knew that the fourth match was going to be pivotal with Berdych facing Wawrinka, and this was guaranteed regardless of the doubles, but the fifth match, were it to go to that, would be a wildcard with Rosol facing either Laaksonen or Chiudinelli.  With all their ranks somewhat low, anything could happen, so a doubles match win would be critical to whoever won.

The Czechs were mildly favored mostly because Berdych has had a solid record playing doubles, but he usually pairs with the highly experienced, Radek Stepanek.  This time, he’d be paired with Lukas Rosol.

This match ended up being the longest match in Davis Cup history lasting about 7 hours where the fifth set was over 3 hours long.  The final set went 24-22 to the Czechs.  The Swiss had to save 12 match points, but eventually lost when Chiudinelli double-faulted.  It will be interesting to see how both Berdych and Wawrinka fares in the third day, and this is the kind of fatigue that makes Davis Cup so fascinating, even in the first round.

Czech Republic leads Switzerland 2-1

Argentina vs. Germany

This would probably make for an interesting World Cup match, but it’s Davis Cup.  Argentina was playing without Juan Martin del Potro, and decided to go with Juan Monaco and Carlos Berlocq to play singles and let David Nalbandian and Christopher Kas to play doubles.  The Germans played Philipp Kohlschreiber and Florian Mayer.  This should have been somewhat even.  Monaco has improved his clay court rank peaking at number 10.  Kohlschreiber players tough and Mayer had had his rank up higher.

But home team advantage seems strong as Kohlschreiber retired against Berlocq in the fifth set, and Monaco handled Mayer in four sets.   The Argentine duo then took the doubles in four sets.

Argentina beats Germany, 3-0

Kazakhstan vs Austria

Normally, on paper, Austria would perhaps be the stronger team, but Kazakhstan has built a team by wooing mostly lower ranked Russians to play for Kazakhstan with the promise of facilities, coaching, and monetary support.  If you pay them, they will come.  And, Jurgen Melzer, who had climbed to number 10 back in 2010 has been slipping back down the ranks.

Andrey Golubev beat Andreas Haider-Mauer in straight sets in the first match, and Evgeny Korolev beat Jurgen Melzer in the second match.

The Austrians, however, have a veteran doubles team in Peya and Knowle and kept Austria in the tie by winning the doubles in straight sets.

Kazakhstan leads Austria 2-1

Canada vs. Spain

Spain is typically strong enough to field two Davis Cup teams that would have good chances to go deep.  So it comes as a surprise that Spain played none of the players you would think they might.  Nadal is clearly out, but Ferrer, Verdasco, Lopez, and Almagro, did not play either.  They decided to play Albert Ramos and Marcel Granollers.

To be fair, maybe they thought Canada couldn’t field anyone besides Milos Raonic.  They were bringing their top doubles pair, Granollers and Lopez, winners of the year-end championship to play doubles, so Spain may have figured they could beat Canada’s number 2, whoever that might be.

Interestingly, rather than play Jesse Levine, who had been a US player, but was actually born in Canada and recently became Canadian again, they chose Canadian veteran, Frank Dancevic who has played a long time.   Dancevic’s highest rank was about 65, but he’s closer to 165 right now.  Granollers, by contrast, is ranked about 34 which makes him the fifth ranked Spaniard (ahead of Feliciano Lopez).

But Davis Cup leads men to accomplish more than they thought possible and makes men crumple that should do better.  Dancevic dropped on 5 games in his win over Granollers.

The Canadians were hoping to close it out in doubles with veteran Daniel Nestor pairing with relative newcomer, Vasek Pospisil.  And when the Canadians took the third set to go up 2 sets to 1 over the duo of Granollers and Lopez, it looked good, but the Spaniards came storming back and took sets 4 and 5 to keep themselves in the match.  Still, Canada’s chances look good if Raonic can close out his singles match over Granollers.

Canada leads Spain, 2-1.

Italy vs Croatia

Both Italy and Croatia came in with similar personnel.  Both had one solid second tier player, and one third tier player.  Italy had the steady Andreas Seppi, and Croatia had the inconsistent, Marin Cilic, as their primary player while Italy also has Lorenzi and Fognini as backup while Croatia is playing Ivan Dodig.  With the match played in Italy on clay, the surface leans to Italy’s favor, but Croatia can also play clay.

Cilic needed 5 sets to beat Lorenzi while Seppi beat Dodig in four sets on the first day.

Bolleli and Fognini beat Cilic and Dodig in doubles in four sets.

Italy leads Croatia, 2-1.

Belgium vs. Serbia

Normally, Serbia would be too strong.  With number 1, Novak Djokovic and number 9, Janko Tipsarevic, Serbia should beat almost any other team outside of maybe Spain or France.  But Janko got hurt and they had to play Viktor Troicki whose confidence has been having issues, but is still the third ranked Serb.  The Belgians best player is David Goffin whose rank improved a great deal in 2012, but who still lacks enough experience to beat good players.

Goffin easily took the first two sets over Troicki, but the Serb kept hanging in and took each of the next three sets.  Djokovic rolled over tour veteran, Olivier Rochus, in the second singles.  Troicki then paired with doubles specialist, Nenad Zimonjic, to take the doubles, and lead Serbia to a 3-0 win.

Serbia beats Belgium, 3-0.

France vs. Israel

If Spain has the strongest team and Serbia perhaps the second strongest (Switzerland might be up there if Federer would commit to playing, but he doesn’t), then France is likely 3.  Unlike Spain, France chose to bring some of the big guns.  They had Tsonga and Gasquet playing.  Israel’s best player is Dudi Sela, and it’s been a while since he played his best tennis.  Israeli stalwart, Amir Weintraub, was playing number 2.

Tsonga needed 4 sets to beat Weintraub, but Gasquet won his match over Sela in straight sets.

The French, at least, is not lacking for good doubles players.  Llodra and Benneteau who have played doubles with one another in the past, had a four set win over Erlich and Sela.  Normally, Erlich plays with Andy Ram.  Not sure why not here.