Davis Cup Preview: Sweden at U.S.
Posted on April 7, 2004
This weekend features the Davis Cup quarterfinals, with Sweden at the U.S., Argentina at Belarus, France at Switzerland, and the Netherlands at Spain. Each day this week Tennis-X will preview one of the quarterfinal ties, leading to the beginning of the first day of singles play on Friday:Sweden at U.S.
Site: Delray Beach Tennis Centre, Delray Beach, Florida, USA
Surface: Hard (Plexipave) - Outdoors
Ball Type: Wilson US Open Extra Duty High Visibility Felt
While the U.S. would seem the favorites in this tie, at home and fronting former No. 1 Andy Roddick and the current No. 1 doubles tandem of Bob and Mike Bryan, this match-up against Sweden was more of a coin flip. At least until Joachim Johansson pulled with a strained shoulder and back.
The Swedes have been racking up tour wins of late against the Americans, and are a formidable squad in rookie Robin Soderling, who recently reached the final at Marseille (l. to Hrbaty), and at the end of last year at Stockholm (l. to Fish); veteran Thomas Enqvist, who beat Roddick earlier this year at Memphis; and veteran doubles specialist Jonas Bjorkman, who beat Roddick earlier this year at Doha. That's a lot of beating on Andy Roddick, who remains nonplussed.
"It's a huge goal of mine to help our team win Davis Cup," Roddick said. "I mean, I've been a fan ever since I went to a tie when I was younger. So it's definitely a priority in my tennis life, that's for sure."
Swedish captain Mats Wilander was going to go with the team of Bjorkman-Johansson in doubles, coming off their stunning win over Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in their opening-round upset over Australia, but now may replace Johansson with another Johansson in Thomas Johansson. That's a lot of Johansson for Wilander to tap into.
Now Wilander must choose between Enqvist, Soderling, and Bjorkman for the singles. Enqvist has a 2-1 career mark against Roddick, but trails U.S. No. 2 Mardy Fish 0-2 in their encounters, a big reason for U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe choosing The Fish over the hot-handed Vince Spadea. The rookie Soderling has never faced Roddick, and is 0-1 versus Fish. Bjorkman will be a surprise pick in singles since he will need to be fresh for the doubles, but says he is ready for double duty.
"They're all open," Wilander said. "There's so much that can happen. I don't fancy telling anyone early that I believe (someone is) going to play or not. It's better that everyone works toward the same goal and everybody's ready to play on Friday...The matchups don't matter. It's a very even match."
Pat Mac still sees a tough fight ahead, even with the Swedish reshuffling.
"It's going to be a very tough match," McEnroe said. "Mats has a lot of options. I'm going with our two best guns. If we play our best, we have a pretty good shot."
The Americans have chosen a slow hardcourt surface, which will give Roddick more time to set up his booming forehand, and may or may not hamper the serve-and-volley game of Fish.
"It's a relatively slow hardcourt," McEnroe said. "We feel like it's our best surface. It should be the way we want it to be. For the Swedes, it's probably their favorite surface as well."
The Swedes are pumped after their 4-1 upset over the defending champion Swedes in the opening round, and like the U.S. are now seen as a squad of young guns that can compete with the more experienced squads.
"It's nice to get a win like that," Wilander said. "Away we're more of a team, less distractions. They feel like they have played enough that they are able to beat anybody. In Davis Cup, the rankings are thrown out the window. I think any time we play we are the favorites. I think we have a pretty good shot."
The singles match-ups will be announced on Thursday.
WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Spain's Arantxa "Not That Arantxa" Parra kicked off the women's claycourt season with the first upset at Amelia Island Monday, ousting No. 14 seed Francesca Schiavone 6-0 in the third set.
"It was a great win over a very good player," Parra said. "When I was playing the second set, I didn't think that I could come back and win that set but I started to play very well, more solid. I started to put more balls in the court and not miss too many. I had more confidence."
The other three seeds in action on the day all struggled to victories in (12)Patty Schnyder (d. Schaul 6-1 in the third), (15)Maggie Maleeva (d. (Q)Randriantefy in three), and (16)Conchita Martinez (d. Krasnoroutskaya 6-1 in the third).
Three qualifiers moved into the second round in Czech Barbora Strycova (d. Melanie "Our Favorite Element" Czink), China's Tian Tian Sun (d. Black), and Colombia's Catalina Castano (d. Diaz-Oliva). Other unseeded winners were Russian Dinara Safin (d. Tanasugarn to set up a match with (1)Henin-Hardenne), Japan's Akiko Morigami (d. Vento-Kabchi) and Shinobu Asagoe (d. Reeves), Croatian Jelena Kostanic (d. Weingartner), Hungarian Petra Mandula (d. Barna), Swiss wildcard Marie-Gayanay Mikaelian (d. Jie in three), Slovak Tina Pisnik (d. Kremer), and Spaniards Virginia Ruano Pascual (d. Granville) and Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues (d. Craybas). Not a good day for the Americans, posting an 0-3 record.
On court Tuesday at Amelia are Shaughnessy vs. Pierce, Sun vs. Davenport, (WC)Navratilova vs. Brandi, Frazier vs. Dokic, Henin-Hardenne vs. Safina, Hopkins vs. Smashnova-Pistolesi, Pisnik vs. Zvonareva, Schnyder vs. (WC)Mikaelian in an all-Swiss meeting, Farina Elia vs. Likhovtseva, Santangelo vs. Suarez, Sprem vs. Irvin, and Molik vs. Jankovic.
Top-seeded Emilie Loit (d. (WC)Mirza in three) advanced, while No. 5 Iveta "Win Next Time" Benesova (l. to Marrero in three) didn't among the two seeds in action Monday at Casablanca. There were also two unseeded winners in Klara "Kouky" Koukalova (d. Barabara "Didn't use the" Schwartz), and Croatian Silvija Talaja (d. Ant. Serre Zanetti). Through to the main draw in the last round of qualifying Monday were Roberta Vinci (ITA), Kyra Nagy (HUN), Zsofia Gubacsi (HUN), and Marta Domachowska (POL).
The cringe-inducing Tuesday schedule at Casablanca is Razzano vs. Kurhajcova, Cohen-Aloro vs. Bartoli, Srebotnik vs. Mouhtassine, Callens vs. Cervanova, Martinez Granados vs. Schruff, Vakulenko vs. Domachowska, Groenefeld vs. Birnerova, Pastikova vs. Pennetta, Camerin vs. Vinci, Sucha vs. Grande, Leon Garcia vs. Nagy, and Spears vs. Gubacsi.
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