Isner vs. Troicki to Highlight Busy Davis Cup Friday
Plus: Del Potro, Gonzalez Out of Indian Wells,
Graf, Navratilova to Play Haiti Exo
By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net
Isner's looking to become a Davis Cup hero.
THURSDAY, MARCH 4- If there was any pre-time real
drama in the US vs. Serbia match-up, it was solved Friday
when Serbia picked Viktor Troicki instead of Janko Tipsarevic to face
the US’s John Isner. Tipsarevic is the more proven veteran performer,
but Troicki can bring the heat and will likely give Isner fits when he’s
returning, which is part of the right recipe for success against the service
bomber, who has yet to develop a dependable return game. Plus, Troicki
won the only match they played in Bangkok on a hard court last year.
“John has a had a great week of practice so he’s in there
with a pretty good chance,” said US captain Patrick McEnroe. Isner
better come up huge, as
Novak Djokovic is a substantial favorite against Sam Querrey in the second
match, even though Querrey has been playing very well during the last
month. If Querrey can get on Djokovic early, beware, but he has to avoid
getting drawn into Djokovic’s meat grinder style. “Sam is
going too have to take his game to another level,” said McEnroe.
Defending champion Spain is a sizable favorite against the Swiss, but
don’t count out Stanislas Wawrinka against Nicolas
Almagro, as he owns a holds a 3-1 career record against him. Spain’s
David Ferrer will play Marco Chiudinelli in the second match, which is
a lock for the home squad…Chris Bowers reported that that the recent
gastric illness that top French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
suffered caused him to lose seven pounds. Did Big Jo need to lose the
weight? Don’t think so, but he should be able to pund past Germany’s
Benjamin Becker. The more intriguing match will be between Gael Monfils
and Philipp Kohlschreiber…Nikolay Davydenko is definitely out of
Russia’s tie against India in Moscow and likely out of Indian Wells,
too. Igor Andreev will face India’s Somdev Devvarman in the opening
match and Mikhail Youzhny will play Rohan Bopanna in the second match…Argentina’s
David Nalbandian is expected to play Davis Cup doubles
on Saturday against Sweden, and possibly the reverse singles on Sunday.
For now, Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank will open against Robin Soderling,
followed by Leonardo Mayer against the Joachim Johansson.
Does Pim-Pim only play Davis Cup these days?... Czech captain Jaroslav
Navratil says that he will only use Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych
against Belgium. Belgium’s Olivier Rochus will open play
against Berdych, flowed by Xavier Malisse against Stepanek… British
captain John Lloyd may lose his job if his Andy-Murray-less
squad doesn’t beat Lithuania in Vilnius. Lloyd is trying to prevent
his nation from losing five successive ties for the first time in 110
years with No. 250 James Ward and No. 252 Dan Evans in singles. “I
know that if we lose, there will be calls for me to go, I’m realistic
enough to know that,” said Lloyd. I don’t know if I’ll
want to carry on. I would have to see if I had the support of the locker
room and that would obviously involve Andy [Murray] as well. He may be
taking Davis Cup on a match-by-match basis, but he’s the superstar
and what he says will have an enormous bearing.”…The controversial
yet capable Bernard Tomic, 17, will become the second
youngest Australian to play Davis Cup when he’ll play Taiwan’s
Tsung-Hua Yang on Margaret Court Arena. It’s a rematch of the 2008
Australian Open boys' final, which was won by Tomic 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-0.
Aussie Peter Luczak will play No. 517 Chu-Huan Yi in the second match.
Here are two somewhat expected pullouts from next week’s BNP Paribas
Open at Indian Wells: US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro
(right wrist) and Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez (wants
to stay in Chile to help raise money for earthquake victims).
But the tournament's “Hit For Haiti” exhibition on March 12
has added a women’s doubles match featuring legends Steffi
Graf and Lindsay Davenport against Martina Navratilova and Justine Henin.
That match will follow a men’s contest between Roger Federer and
Pete Sampras against Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi. The exo will be presented
by Oracle… Teen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is putting
up wins much much more consistently now, including taking down Polona
Hercog 6-2 6-3 in Monterrey. She's ready to crack the top 20. Alize
Cornet has also picked up some steam, besting Aleksandra Wozniak
6-2
6-3... Ana Ivanovic has become the first marquee player
to enter the Southern California Open in San Diego…SAP
has renewed its title sponsorship of the ATP event in San Jose for the
next three years.ENDS
