The Spanish team has been dominant taking the Davis Cup 3 of the last four years.  The one time they didn’t take it was 2010 when they were upset by France without Rafael Nadal.  This year, with the Olympics, Nadal decided to beg out and not play Davis Cup.  For that matter, David Ferrer, the stalwart number 2, also had decided not to play.  However, with Albert Costa retiring as Davis Cup coach last year and Alex Corretja replacing him, Ferrer appears to have changed his mind.

Although Ferrer didn’t play the initial round against Kazakhstan, being replaced by Juan Carlos Ferrero, he has played the second round and the semis.

The Czechs have been here before.  In 2009, the duo of Stepanek and Berdych made the finals, but they were blanked by the Spaniards in the final, 5-0.  In those days, Stepanek was a better singles player than he is today, though arguably, Berdych is a better player today than he was then.  Berdych made his first serious move up in 2010 when he reached the semis of the French and finals of Wimbledon.

Even without Nadal playing number 1, the Spanish team is formidable with David Ferrer who is often such a solid number 2, that last year, David Ferrer played some of the ties, but won all singles matches he played including a critical win over del Potro on the first day of last year’s Davis Cup finals.

The Czech had a narrow route for a victory, and it primarily hinges on Tomas Berdych winning both singles and the doubles point.  While Stepanek is still ranked 37, there are still a few Spaniards ranked ahead of him including Granollers (who played doubles today), Verdasco, Ferrer, and Almagro.  There are even players ranked very close behind him, including Andujar and Lopez, who is better as  fast court player.  Stepanek is a quirkly player and has even won a title, taking the Washington DC event back in 2011 over Gael Monfils.

The one plus for Stepanek is his doubles play.  Stepanek started off his tennis career as a doubles specialist, but began having success as a singles player and focused on that.  This year, he decided to pair up to play doubles once again with the veteran, Leander Paes.   In 2011, Paes and Bhupathi paired together hoping they could patch up differences in their personalities that had lead to a long separation, in preparation for the finals.

Alas, the duo could not stay together, so they split in 2012.  Paes then played with Stepanek, someone he had played with once, and the duo won the Australian Open over the Bryan brothers.  The pair were so good, they qualified for the year-end championships in London as the third seed.  Coincidentally, Granollers and Lopez also qualified as the sixth seed.

Granollers and Lopez would go on to win the title with their only loss to Stepanek and Paes in round-robin play.

Despite the Spaniards having a legitimate shot at winning doubles, the duo of Granollers and Lopez still have struggled.  In three ties this year, Granollers and Lopez have only one once against the Kazakh team in the opening round.  They lost to the Austrian doubles team  of Marach and Peya.  To be fair, in the semis, they lost to the Bryan brothers, the number 1 team (though the Spaniards beat them in round-robin play in London).

And, Stepanek and Berdych have only lost once as a doubles team in Davis Cup play, which was back in 2009 when they reached the finals and lost to Verdasco and Lopez (Feliciano).  With Stepanek having played doubles last week, the hope was that he’d still be in good shape to continue the streak.

The Czechs entered the second day of the Davis Cup tied 1 match apiece.  This was pretty much as expected.  Ferrer, the number 5 player in the world, is just too good for pretty much everyone outside the top ten, and he beat Stepanek as expected.  Berdych was favored over Almagro, but the thought was he would beat Almagro in 4 sets.  Almagro pushed him to 5 sets, so there’s an issue of fatigue especially since the Czechs need Berdych to play doubles too.

The Spaniards were able to get to a good start taking the first set off a break from Stepanek.  The Czechs took a break early in the second, but the Spaniards broke back.  The Czechs took the set after a late break, 75.  The duo took the third set on a late break to take that 75.  Finally, they got an early break in the fourth set, and took it 63.

With the Czechs up 2-1, they have some breathing room.  The Czechs opted to play on a fast indoor court.  They had wanted to make the court even faster, but Davis Cup has restrictions how fast a court can be, because they are concerned that a country may lay an ultra-fast court that is so fast that a good thumping serve or a good hard hit would end the point.

Once upon a time, when McEnroe played a lot, indoor courts were played on “carpet” which was considered lightning fast by today’s standards.  However, countries must have a court that is comparable to one played at a real tournament.  The fastest courts in recent memory was 2011 Paris, but they chose to slow it down this year.

Both Berdych and Stepanek play well on faster surfaces.  While Almagro is not a particularly good fast court player, which is strange given how hard he hits the ball, he has played better this year.  In any case, Corretja seems loyal to Almagro who is, after all, the second ranked Spaniard.  It’s not clear who to put behind Almagro, in any case.  Anyone they pick would make it easier for Berdych to win.

Berdych has had some history with Almagro.  The two played in the Australian Open.  After Almagro pegged Berdych on a passing shot, Berdych took offense and refused to shake hands, which lead the sportsmanlike Aussies too boo mercilessly for a perceived lack of tennis etiquette (given hitting someone, despite its rarity, is considered fair play).

That animosity lead Berdych to basically taunt the Spanish team calling Almagro the weak link and criticizing their doubles team in a rare display of trash talking.  This phenomenon is common in US team sports.  It’s so common that teams are often advised not to make such boasts, lest it be “bulletin board” material.

Berdych has a pretty good record over Almagro, including a 4-1, head-to-head just this year, but Almagro pushed him to 5 sets.  With Berdych having to play doubles, one wonders about fatigue.  Slams often allow a day of rest between rounds.  Once upon a time, Slams also featured best of 5 doubles, but that has long not been the case as the popularity of doubles has decreased and a best of 5 format is just too long to schedule.

Berdych actually has a good shot to beat Ferrer in the reverse singles, but Ferrer is rested.  To be fair, this is a bit relative.  Ferrer has played the most tennis of anyone on tour, and, in particular, he played a lot in the last 3 weeks.  He played and won Valencia, an indoor tournament, then played and won Paris, his first Masters 1000 title.  Finally, he played in London and had a 2-1 record, but failed to qualify for the semis.

He did have a fairly straight-forward win over Stepanek, which was expected.

Berdych can, at least, point to a recent spate of good play, including the recent upset of Roger Federer at the US Open.  Berdych has the kind of power game that can bother Ferrer, and the two are very close in rankings.  Still, what makes Ferrer amazing is his ability to play on any surface.  This year, with 7 titles under his belt, Ferrer has not only the most titles of anyone on tour, he’s also won a title on pretty much every surface, having won a clay title, a grass title, a hardcourt title, and an indoor title.  And Slam-wise, he reached two Slam semis at the French Open and the US Open, making this year his best ever.

This is why it was critical for the Czech team to win the doubles.  They would have been hard-pressed to win both reverse singles.  Now, they only have to win one of them.  Stepanek has an outside shot of beating Almagro.  Although Almagro lead their head-to-head, the two have split matches in the last two years.  The only downside is that Almagro is having a pretty good year on hard courts this year, and Stepanek is not quite as good.  Even so, the two have played each other close.

The Czechs best bet still relies on Berdych beating Ferrer.  Although this is a tough match, Berdych at his best has some stuff that can bother Ferrer.  But with a 2-1 cushion, Stepanek, at least, has a lot better chance of beating Almagro then Ferrer.

The Czechs would like to win this for the first time since they became an independent nation (they split from Slovakia).  They did win Davis Cup once in 1980 as Czechoslovakia.

And kudos to Tennis Channel for covering Davis Cup despite the US not getting a whiff of the finals for some time.  Historically, channels like ESPN would stop covering Davis Cup once the US lost.  Tennis Channel shows commitment to Davis Cup by showing other countries’ ties.