Tennis Week: Swedish Surprise For Davis Cup Semifinals

Photo By Getty Images     By Richard Pagliaro
09/13/2007

The United States Davis Cup squad is already up a break before a shot has been struck in its Davis Cup semifinal against host Sweden, set for  Sept. 21-23 in Gothenburg.

Robin Soderling, Sweden’s highest-ranked singles player who withdrew from the U.S. Open with a wrist injury, will not play in the semifinal. Instead, Swedish Davis Cup captain Mats Wilander has selected Jonas Bjorkman, Thomas Johansson, big-serving Joachim Johansson and Simon Aspelin, who partnered Julian Knowle to capture the U.S. Open doubles championship, to the team that will host the USA on a fast carpet court.

The 34th-ranked Soderling’s absence is not completely unexpected — he has not played a match since retiring from his first-round Rogers Cup meeting with Marat Safin in Montreal last month while trailing 1-2 — but it is undoubtedly a break for the Americans. Without Soderling on the squad, Wilander will likely review his options during the upcoming practice week before picking the combinations that will give Sweden its strongest shot of reaching its first Davis Cup final since 1998 when it beat host Italy on red clay to capture its seventh Davis Cup championship.

U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe has reconvened the same cast that has contested the last six ties — Andy Roddick, James Blake, Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan — to represent the USA against Sweden in the semifinal staged on a fast carpet court at the 10,000-seat Scandinavium in Gothenburg. The winner will advance to the Nov. 30-Dec. 2 final against either defending Davis Cup champion Russia or Germany.

Marat Safin will not represent the Russians in their semifinal. Instead, captain Shamil Tarpischev has nominated Nikolay Davydenko, Mikhail Youzhny, Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Andreev to the team that will host Germany’s Tommy Haas, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Alexander Waske and Philipp Petzschner.

Should Russia, which is a clear favorite hosting Germany on a red clay court in Moscow, and the U.S. both win the Americans would host Russia. If Germany wins, the U.S. would travel to Germany.

In a press conference conducted during last week’s U.S. Open, McEnroe stopped short of declaring the Americans a decided favorite on the road — his apprehension probably provoked by the fact the USA has a 2-5 road record in his seven-year tenure and arguably the best team he’s captained that featured both Andre Agassi and Roddick as singles starters was upset by visiting Croatia two years ago — but the reality is this is the USA’s best chance to recapture the Cup since McEnroe took over as captain.

“I think we feel like we’ve got a great chance,” said McEnroe. “We won a big match on the road early in the year against the Czechs, which was big to do that, especially on clay away. I mean, I think we feel like we’ve got a great shot.”

Click here to read the full article at Tennis Week.