Justin Gimelstob doesn’t know what “overrated” means.  He called the Spanish doubles team of Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez overrated.  You can say a player like Andy Murray is overrated or a player like Caroline Wozniacki is overrated.  That is, players that have won a lot but can’t close the big ones out.  But Lopez and Verdasco, despite playing for years, are just not a very good doubles team.  Indeed, the best Spanish doubles team is the occasional pairing of Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez.

Gimelstob said that the Spanish team were favored over the French doubles team.  But if there’s one area where the French have excelled, it’s doubles.  Despite the slow French clay being the signature surface, the French have always played with flair and faster surfaces are better for the French.  If the French Open ever moved, it would move to Spain, which produces awesome clay courters.  The French could pair Llodra with anyone and get a decent doubles team.

The Argentines went with Nalbandian and Schwank.  The two have never played doubles together.  However, top players of today can volley.  Maybe in the old days, Jimmy Arias couldn’t volley or Agassi was not a great volleyer.  But even a solid clay courter spends a lot of time learning how to volley even if they rarely use it.  A top pro has a far more complete game than pros from 30 years ago even if no one sees it.   If Bjorn Borg were being trained today, he would have a good slice backhand and a good volley, much better than what he had when he was in his heyday and it was OK for a top player to lack a shot or two.

Schwank does play a fair bit of doubles and he’s decent at it.  Nalbandian still returns really well and volleys pretty well too.  The idea was to put Nalbandian in the ad court and use his return of serve as a weapon.  Feliciano Lopez struggled on serve, being broken four times.  Meanwhile the Argentines played smart and won the doubles easily: 64, 62, 63.

In the end, the Argentines only prolonged their misery.  For the Argentines, it would be nice if the Ferrer match was on first on Sunday.  Ferrer just played a five setter that lasted five hours.  A fresh Nalbandian might be able to pull the upset and force a fifth match.  But because Nadal is up first, Argentina is in a bind.

The Argentine strategy was to have Juan Monaco wear Nadal out.  But without a big enough game, Monaco could only take 4 games off the king of clay.  He may have taken more than two hours to lose, but Nadal is in far too good a shape to be bothered by a two hour match. Meanwhile, their number one player, Juan Martin del Potro, was pushed to five sets and he lost.  del Potro’s fitness has always been a bit suspect.  He’s managed to win anyway because he’s such a fierce competitor.

The Argentines will have to decide just how fit del Potro is.  del Potro, at his best, gives Argentina its best chance.  But Nalbandian hasn’t played and is healthier.  Still, he’s years from his best tennis and Nadal has gotten better since then too.  Either way, it’s too much to ask for either player, even at their peak, to beat Nadal on clay.  The tie was basically lost when del Potro lost to Ferrer.

And here’s the deal.  Even if Nadal should get upset–maybe he twists an ankle and can’t complete the match,–it’s still no small feat to beat David Ferrer.  I’m guessing they might let Nalbandian play the reverse singles over del Potro and then take their chances with Monaco playing a fatigued Ferrer.  If Nadal wins, as he’s expected to, they’ll sub in someone else, say, Verdasco for Ferrer, just to get the match over with and not tire Ferrer out any more.

This is a tough call for the Argentine Davis Cup captain.  Although both his players are likely to lose to Nadal, he might offend one or the other by playing them on Sunday.  Hopefully, he’s worked this out with his team ahead of time.

In the meanwhile, Spain will likely hoist the trophy once again, and Nadal is likely not to play much Davis Cup next year with the Olympics being played.

And there’s still one live match on Sunday, so that should keep things interesting.