Pierre's Tennisrulz Blog (get your own blog here)

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Upcoming: Two great semifinals!

No doubt about it, the upcoming weekend will show off some great tennis and anyone looking for proof that Davis Cup is not dead needs only look at one of the two upcoming ties to see what tennis is all about in this world where you play for a team, for your country with no points, no money, only pride to earn. Earlier this year, a struggling Andy Roddick said he would be thrilled with his year even if he won no other ATP matches this year as long as his team would capture the Davis Cup.

And Roddick is certainly putting every possible ounce of effort into insuring that his team can overcome a tough Russian team and an even tougher red (and probably very heavy and slow) clay... Roddick even admitted he went to Pete Sampras in order to get some advice about the upcoming tie. On the US side, it's as good of a team as it could hope for. To Andy Roddick and the top doubles team in the world, the Bryan brothers, we can add James Blake, who has taken out all doubt about the fact that he is a world class player and a contender for a top 5 ranking. But beating a tough Russian team will be quite a task. For Russia, there will be Nikolay Davydenko, Marat Safin, Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny. The first has been one of the best and most consistent players on tour this year... We all know that Marat Safin is capable of the very best (as well as the worse). The following two others have been playing impressive tennis lately and among other things in this year's US Open. What better way to introduce the choice of surface than letting Marat Safin explain: ""To play against the United States on a hardcourt -- I think it is not a right choice," Safin said. "Someone has to suffer and it will be not us. That's for sure.".

The other tie is as interesting if not more. It's all about Lleyton Hewitt. One of the best fighters in the game, he's had numerous feuds with Argentines, having spitting incidents, being bumped on during a changeover, etc. But Guillermo Coria was the one who explained his dislike the best saying he would probably get in a fight with Lleyton if he met him off-court. That was said before last year's match where Lleyton gave a good effort but lacked support as his team lost to the Argentines... But this time, he has a wild card with him, playing with Mark Philippoussis. Now the main problem is that Argentina also has the choice of surface, which will cause significant problems for the Aussies... but with an increased determination, everything is possible....

# posted by Pierre : 5:30 PM  

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