Davis Cup Previews; Agassi Wants to be The Boss

Posted on February 5, 2004

Tennis-X will preview two matches per day of the eight first round match-ups leading to the first-round World Group matches for the 2004 Davis Cup, finishing with the first ball hit on Friday. Today's features are Switzerland at Romania, and Croatia at France:

SWITZERLAND vs. ROMANIA
Site: Sala Polivalenta, Bucharest, ROM
Surface: Red clay indoors
Ball Type: Dunlop Fort All Court

After winning seven best-of-five-set matches in Melbourne, it will be interesting to see how Roger Federer holds up in two best-of-five singles and a doubles match over one weekend on the red clay in Bucharest. Michel Kratochvil will try and help Fed out in singles, while the Swiss doubles coupling will be left up to captain Marc Rosset, who never hesitates to throw himself into the mix amidst the weak Swiss supporting cast. Romanian No. 1 Andrei Pavel trails Federer 1-3 in their head-to-head meetings, recording a win on clay in their first match-up back in 2000, when the butterfly had yet to emerge from the cocoon.

Federer and Romanian No. 2 Hanescu have never met on tour, while the Romanian Pavel beat the Swiss Kratochvil in their only meeting in straight sets on clay at the 2002 French Open. Singles No. 2s Kratochvil and Hanescu, who won't be breaking any TV ratings records, will also be meeting for the first time. Pavel has shown he is on his game since returning from injury late last year, but it will require a Herculean effort by the Romanian squad to be alive in the rubber come Sunday.

"My confidence goes up even more," said Federer after his Aussie Open win. "Have you ever seen a No. 1 in the world who is not confident?" With heavyweights Australia, the U.S., Russia and Argentina in the top half of the draw, 2004 is Federer's best shot at driving Switzerland into the Davis Cup final.

SWISS 2003 DAVIS CUP RESULTS
d. Netherlands 3-2, World Group 1st rd.
d. France 3-2, World Group QF
l. to Australia 3-2, World Group SF

ROMANIA 2003 DAVIS CUP RESULTS
l. to France 4-1, World Group 1st rd.
d. Ecuador 3-2, World Group qualifying


FRANCE vs. CROATIA
Site: Les Arenes, Metz, FRA
Surface: Red clay indoors
Ball Type: Roland Garros French Open

French captain Guy Forget will get barbecued in the press if his team drops the doubles match against Croatia after kicking Fabrice Santoro off the team. The slice-and-dice expert was booted last week over his "attitude," right before he and countryman Michael Llodra went on to win the Australian Open doubles title for the second consecutive year.

Forget blames Santoro's attitude and his falling out with the other team members for France's loss last year.

"Santoro knows exactly why he was on the sidelines," Forget said. "We had a meeting in Bercy last year and I talked straight. Fabrice did and said disturbing things for the group, I have always supported him and it was not easy. Between then and now he had many opportunities to make his mea culpa and try to make up with the other players of the team, but I can tell you that they are not on the same wavelengths at all. Everyone in the team seems to have a problem with Fabrice."

Santoro will likely be replaced in the French doubles tandem by the hard-charging Nicolas Escude, who had a hot start to his 2004 campaign. In singles the French will have to do without the injured Sebastien Grosjean (groin pull), likely going with the oft-injured Arnaud Clement and Escude in the No. 1 and No. 2 singles spots.

Croatia's bomb squad is comprised of Ivan Ljubicic in the top slot, with team captain Nikki Pilic forced to choose for the No. 2 position between the rising "Dr." Ivo Karlovic and the struggling Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic. Ljubicic lost to Clement in their only meeting last year on grass at Halle, and trails Escude 0-3, never winning a set with the most recent loss this year at Doha. Karlovic has never faced Clement or Escude, and Ancic is 0-1 against both. The numbers are not adding up for the Croats.

This might be a tight one were it in Croatia, reminiscent of the Croat's home win over the U.S. last year. As it stands, the Croats come in to Metz with an 0-6 career record in individual singles match-ups against the French, with none of the Croatian players able to flip the switch early this year in January tour play. Enter this as a "W" for the French, who will likely face Team Federer in the second round. Perhaps Santoro can change his nationality to Swiss by then.

FRENCH 2003 DAVIS CUP RESULTS
d. Romania 4-1, World Group 1st rd.
l. to Switzerland 3-2, World Group QF

CROATIA 2003 DAVIS CUP RESULTS
d. USA 4-1, World Group 1st rd.
l. to Spain 5-0, World Group QF

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW

Only one seed in action at Tokyo Tuesday, with No. 8 Daniela "The Walking Stick" Hantuchova showing signs of life with a 6-1, 6-7(7), 7-5 win over Aussie riser Alicia Molik. "It was very important for me to beat her," said Hantuchova, whose confidence has appeared in shambles since a lackluster 2003 campaign and a horrendous start to the new year. "I was in control and then fell apart in the second set. I was able to come back and pull it out and the difference this time was attitude and confidence."

In unseeded action, Lisa Raymond did her best to show her upset of Venus Williams at the Australian Open was a fluke, bowing out in the first round in three sets to Maggie Maleeva. Other un-seeds into the second round were Japan's Saori Obata (d. Vakulenko), Russians Tatiana "The Pocket Baseliner" Panova (d. (WC)Zheng) and Maria "Grunt-o-riffic" Sharapova (d. (WC)Yoshida), American Laura Granville (d. (LL)Jidkova), and Venezuela's Maria Vento-Kabchi (d. Likhovtseva).

On court Wednesday are Tanasugarn vs. Husarova, Asagoe vs. Morigami in an all-Asian match-up, Vento-Kabchi vs. Davenport, Hantuchova vs. Sharapova in an all-legs match-up, Navratilova/Raymond vs. Krizan/Srebotnik in doubles, Callens vs. Krasnoroutskaya, Jelena "Craaaazy" Dokic in her first 2004 appearance vs. Black, and Rita "Double Latte" Grande vs. Rubin.

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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Marat Safin is questionable for Davis Cup this weekend, according to Russian team captain and drama queen Shamil Tarpishchev: "There's no guarantee that Safin will play. If he has not rehabilitated himself after Australia, there may be no point in fielding him. The nervous system recovers much longer than the physical one. One cannot trick nature."...To save the ATP Chennai event, the Indian Tamil Nadu government has decided to form a consortium of sponsors to fund the event for five years beginning in 2005, with the state government also kicking in some cash...Athens Olympics organizers on Tuesday promised surprises during the opening ceremony of the 2004 Games but laughed off suggestions of a Janet Jackson-style breast-exposing Super Bowl incident. How about an Anna Kournikova-style calendar-like incident?...ESPN commentator MaliVai Washington: "Davis Cup is more than just X's and O's. Who is favored and who is not. It's more about who can come together as a team and produce great tennis in a three-day span. The United States has struggled with that concept since 1996, but it now has everything it takes to win the Davis Cup."...According to Jeff Ryan, director of USA team events for the United States Tennis Association, the hardcourt at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut constructed for the U.S.-Austria Davis Cup match resembles a giant mouse pad: "The hardcourt for the matches is actually a thin pad, about 1/16 or 1/18 of an inch thick that is pieced together over the concrete floor."...Pat Rafter beat Mats Wilander in the post-Australian Open exhibition of former No. 1s, 6-2, 7-6(1), and said that is enough tennis for awhile. The laid-back Wilander is noted for ending his playing days after testing positive for cocaine in the latter stages of his career, and currently coaches Sweden's Davis Cup team...Through three men's events this year, Fabrice Santoro has two doubles titles with two different partners, not bad for the player who just got kicked off France's Davis Cup team...Lindsay Davenport says if some big slam wins don't come soon she may hang it up later this year...Andre Agassi turned on the politi-speak, talking about perhaps becoming involved in running the tour after his playing days are over: "I would have a tremendous amount of interest in helping the sport that's been so good to me. I have no interest in having some token job title. There's a lot of help the sport needs right now. It can go a long ways in a short amount of time. I would enjoy very much directing the potentials of where that could lead. I think tennis is in for serious improvement, even from here." Tennis needs someone to direct those potentials, shift some paradigms, do it Andre...Venus says she and sister Serena rise above the fray in their sibling relationship: "I don't think in any way Serena and I are what you would call normal," Venus told Reuters. "Well, maybe we are normal. Maybe it's the other people who aren't normal -- who want to argue with their sisters and brothers...who have differences or who have issues...I'm hardcore. I was always convinced that I was the best and I guess in a way of course I still am. I think in the end, Serena and I are competitive, we both want to win. But we realize there's a bigger picture and there's no need to have issues because it's emotionally draining and it's stupid."...Apparently Swedish Davis Cup rookie Robin Soderling will feature in singles for the Swiss this weekend, with Jonas Bjorkman and Joachim "I'm Dating Lleyton's Sister" Johansson in doubles...Mark Philippoussis said Wednesday that suggestions that Pat Cash was considering taking out a restraining order against him were laughable...Belarus D-Cup captain Sergei Teterin says his World Group rookie team will have some surprises for Russia this weekend: "The Russians are much more experienced, while we're appearing in the World Group for the first time, but we know Russian players abilities very well and we will be playing at home. I consider both teams have equal chances."