This match will be right after Wimbledon, so hopefully Courier and the USTA don’t screw up and choose a fast hard court or indoor surface. Wherever this match is held, if the U.S. can dial back the clock to 1980 and hire someone who did groundskeeping work at Wimbledon 30 years ago, a slick old-school grasscourt will see the U.S. beating Spain.

Rafael Nadal returns to tennis tomorrow in Belgium.

Jim Courier announced his U.S. Davis Cup roster for tie against Chile.

Milos Roanic does it again!

Andy Roddick survived a good test from Richard Berankis in Memphis last night.

Sean Randall breaks down the Australian Open fourth round.

Matches to look out for on a loaded Friday in Melbourne include (2) Roger Federer vs. Xavier “X-Man” Malisse, (19) Stan Wawrinka vs. (12) Gael “Force” Monfils, an all-Serb in (29) Viktor Troicki vs. (3) Novak Djokovic, (8) Andy Roddick vs. Dutchman Robin Haase, Kei “Special K” Nishikori vs. Fernando “Hot Sauce” Verdasco, (6) Tomas Berdych vs. (28) Richard Gasquet, and (14) Nicolas Almagro vs. (17) Ivan Ljubicic.

Remarks on the first round of play in Australia.

A quick preview of the Australian Open men’s draw.

Two players on the sidelines are trying to figure out how to tweak their games in time for the Australian Open — both dealing with equipment issues. Maria Sharapova switched from her long-time Prince racquet to a multi-million sponsorship with HEAD, but last week lost early in her only WTA warm-up event. This week world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki debuted her cash-grab switch to Yonex, losing her opening-round match. Wozniacki vaulted to No. 1 behind her long-time association with her Babolat racquet. Before the event, Wozniacki and her Yonex won one game off Vera Zvonareva in an exhibition match.