Much like the World Cup that just concluded (Rafael Nadal made an appearance in South Africa to support Spain in its first win), the Davis Cup is actually tiered. Most of the media focuses on the top tier, the World Group, which starts with 16 teams, and goes four rounds over four different times of the year to decide a champion. Here at ATP Tour News, we focus at this level because, frankly, there’s not a lot of information of the other countries competing. The US, having lost in the first round to Croatia, has to play again later in the year to stay in the world group.
As of today, two countries had made the semifinals: France and the Czech Republic. There were still two ties that were undecided.
In the Croatia-Serbia tie, Novak Djokovic faced Marin Cilic. Already, this was a contentious situation. Serbia had taken the lead by winning the doubles and leading 2-1. Although Djokovic gets a lot of criticism for not “showing up” to majors, you have to credit him with playing Davis Cup. Djokovic played in the first round against the US, shortly after his quarterfinal meltdown against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the Australian Open. And after his loss to Berdych in the Wimbledon semifinals, he heads to Croatia to play. Likewise, Croatia’s best player, Marin Cilic was also there to lead Croatia.
This match was, frankly, not close. Djokovic dominated start to end, moving the ball around, never making Cilic feel comfortable. The Croatian audience was getting particularly rowdy, on the verge of rude, and Djokovic didn’t help much by being exuberant when he won long rallies. Credit Djokovic with serving even as the audience would make noise to disrupt his serve.
Djokovic won handily 6-3, 6-3, 6-2, and with that, Serbia won the tie.
Janko Tipsarevic was tagged to be the fifth match and Croatia used Antonio Veic who was originally going to scheduled to play doubles but was replaced by Marin Cilic. As expected, Serbia won this match too: 6-2 7-6(5).
The other tie that was still undecided today was Russia-Argentina. Davydenko had threatened not to play on the third day, given his loss to Nalbandian on Day 1, and his loss in the doubles on Day 2. But, he did actually play, and although he dropped the first set against Eduardo Schwank, he came back to win in four: 4-6 6-3 6-1 6-4.
Davydenko credits his wife for convincing him to play. She told him “you play Friday, you have to play Sunday”. Davydenko’s never been too afraid to say that his wife wears the pants in their marriage. He has to win to pay for her lifestyle, but it’s also clear that she wants him to be successful and he listens to what she says.
This left David Nalbandian to play Mikhail Youzhny. At first glance, this seems like a match Youzhny should win. He’s at home. He’s been playing well the last few months both on hard courts and on clay. Meanwhile, Nalbandian hasn’t been playing that much. He’s only played 4 events all year, although he did play Davis Cup, helping Argentina win when they lacked del Potro. The last event Nalbandian played was Monte Carlo where he lost to Djokovic in the quarterfinals. But who did Nalbandian beat in the second round? Mikhail Youzhny. But that was clay, and this is hard courts.
It wasn’t even close (except for a set). Nalbandian won in straight sets: 7-6(5) 6-4 6-3. Nalbandian becomes the surprise hero of this tie, with drama occurring in the Davydenko camp and Nalbandian’s rank having dropped below 100. Russia had won 17 consecutive ties at home, and so this loss was a big surprise.
Although the tie was already decided, Chile and the Czech Republic finished their reverse singles. Since the Czechs had already won, both countries put their doubles players and asked them to play singles. In the fourth match, Jorge Aguilar played Lukas Dlouhy and won in straight sets giving Chile its only point. In the fifth match, Ivo Minar played Cristobal Saavedra-Corvalan and won in straight sets, finishing the tie 4-1 for the Czechs.
France and Spain have such strong teams that they can both do without their number 1 players, and field four players in the top 40. In the reverse singles, Gilles Simon beat Nicolas Almagro in two tiebreaks. In the fifth match, Julien Benneteau beat Feliciano Lopez in straight sets. The French took the tie, 5-0.
France will play Argentina in the semifinals and Serbia will play the Czech Republic. France will be favored if Juan Martin del Potro doesn’t play. If he plays and he is playing well, then that combination with David Nalbandian will be quite challenging. If del Potro doesn’t play, and it seems he might not, especially if he skips the US Open, then France may be favored. It would also help if Tsonga can play. This will be hosted in France. They will probably play this match indoors. The difference may come down to doubles where France should have an advantage.
The Czechs knew they got lucky. They played the weakest team in the quarterfinals, Chile. They had neither of their top 2 players playing, Berdych and Stepanek. They need these two to contend with Serbia. This tie will be played in Serbia. Berdych is pretty versatile and can play on fast and slow courts. But if they get Stepanek back, he would prefer a faster court, so Serbia may choose to play this on indoor clay since Djokovic can play well on all surfaces.