Beginning in 2005,
Wilson will be producing an "official Davis Cup tennis racquet."...
Chile's appearance in the Davis Cup World Group in 2005 will end a 20-year absence...On Thursday the
2005 Davis Cup World Group Draw will be released by the ITF...The U.S. moved from 6 to No. 5 in the
Davis Cup Rankings after beating Belarus, while Spain jumped from 3 to No. 1...Props to the
ITF's Davis Cup website for their live scoring throughout the weekend, that is nice stuff...The release of the
WTA Rankings was delayed Monday due to Hurricane "Mean" Jeanne slamming into the WTA Headquarters in Florida...
Spain is in its third Davis Cup final in the past five years...
Wayne Ferreira was honored for his services to South African tennis at a ceremony prior to the start of the Davis Cup tie against Greece at the Groenkloof Tennis Stadium last Friday. On Friday morning
Ian Smith, chief executive officer of the SA Tennis Association presented Ferreira with a decanter and four crystal glasses with one of Africa's "Big Five" animals engraved into each item. "The presentation was in appreciation of Wayne's wonderful career as a player and for what he did for South African tennis," said Smith. Ferreira said it had been special for him to play in an intimate arena like Groenkloof and have his parents, sister and brother all watching him. "I think that is the first time that has ever happened." Ferreira played his final tournament at the US Open, the event marking his record 56th consecutive Grand Slam appearance. Ferreira won 15 titles from 23 finals during his career, most recently in Los Angeles last year. Ferreira won two ATP Masters Series singles titles -- Toronto ('96) and Stuttgart ('00) and was a two-time Australian Open semifinalist ('92 and '03)...With
Roger Federer's total points in 2004 he could currently qualify in the first and sixth position for the year-end Masters Cup...Former No. 2
Alex Corretja lost in the first round of the Szczecin Challenger last week, while
Justin "Time" Gimelstob won the Beijing Challenger...U.S. Davis cup coach
Patrick McEnroe says
Andre Agassi remains in the back of his mind for the Davis Cup final on red clay in December versus the high-powered Spaniards: "There's a lot of options. I'm never going to say never about anything. If Andre called me, I'd take his call and go from there. But whether I'm expecting that to happen or whether I'm going to call him myself is something I'll think about. He's certainly capable of playing great claycourt tennis. And saying that, we all know where he stood on Davis Cup in the last few years, and we've missed him. If he's interested and available, he knows my number. And I know his number." The former French Open champion Agassi is 1-0 versus
Carlos Moya on clay, and 0-1 career versus
Juan Carlos Ferrero...
Mark Philippoussis takes a four-match losing streak onto the court today at Shanghai...
SI.com's Jon Wertheim: "As many of you have inferred, we generally hold
Serena in high regard. But could someone please impress upon her how tiresome (and insufferably arrogant) her "I played poorly" routine has become? After saving multiple match points Sunday to beat the hottest player on Tour
(Svetlana Kuznetsova), Serena remarked: "I just played crazy...It's kind of encouraging that I was able to win when I wasn't playing my best today." New rule (nod to
Bill Maher): Either play your best for once, or stop pouring salt on your opponents' wounds by beating them and ungraciously noting how lousily you performed. Enough already." Word that...Aussie
Todd Reid, who lost a dead rubber match in Australia's Davis Cup qualifying win to a No. 400+ ranked Moroccan: "The guys never really made me feel like I am in the team yet and that's the way it is because I am basically a fill-in and I haven't played that many Davis Cup matches and I really have to earn the respect of the players."...
Andres Fazio, president of the Chilean Tennis Federation, is planning to construct a new stadium/national tennis center in the resort of Vina del Mar, inferring they might need it if Chile makes the Davis Cup final in 2005...The Davis Cup final between Spain and the U.S. will take place in
Seville, the Spanish Tennis Federation announced, at the Olympic stadium of La Cartuja on red clay.
