following on from Alex's performance vs Santoro today i just don't get the LTA. surely they must see that they have a player in their hands who is capable of doing some damage and being a good number 2 player for GB, yet instead of trying to offer any kind of support and nurturing to him to try and find out what can be done to get the most out of him they throw him to the wolves every chance they get. You get the impression that the lta have no idea of man management. its one fits all approach and if you dont fit you and squashed and pulled until you do, and if still you dont you are thrown out.
the the most cack-handed of football managers will understand that players need to be treated in different ways to get the best out of them, yet the lta seem incapable of this.


Back to this tie, i agree josh 1st is the best option. lets hope he can cope with the nerves, if he can he should win and put the pressure on stak. if he gets nervous etc if could be a big boost for Illy tho, who will probably being going out there feeling eh has a chance anyway. i am sure the Ukrainians will be saying 'you know this guy has never played dc b4, and now he's number team leader, under all the pressure etc'

if we cant end day 1 at least 1-1 we are basically done for.

on Alex: its not even just the DC, the press were after alex at wimby, he played well and lost to a superior opponent. his past wc's should have had no bearing on that really, yet they didnt as an organisation comes to his defence when they had a great chnace to prove to alex they had his back, bar a tiny snippet from Paul Annacone, which i think OEM repeated in the run up to the Austria tie. i think its a very sad state of affairs when our no 2 (ok no 3 right now) has no trust in the orgainsation set up to run the sport in this country.

on DC:
yes i agree the fact that a Josh victory seems to be taken for granted is worrying, looking at the states in the cold light the highest ranked player josh has beaten this year is Dustov at 443! Illy has wins over De Voest & Ascionne this year indoors and pushed Zverev to 3 sets too. form coming into the tie is surely with the Ukrainian

But he spelt your name wrong steven!

The BBC also appear to have an article with some decent quotes in here http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7926100.stm, it sounds like the attitude being portrayed to the media is much better than it was in Argentina.

On AB: I think he should have been at the trials to be able to show the media how good he was or wasn't. There isn't much the media/fans can do to complain if he has beaten everyone else in order to get there. To not take the #2 ranked player available devalues the whole ranking systems in my opinion. I agree with the comments above regarding the bad handling of AB by the LTA. He looks like he needs some sports psychology. If JG gets injured or something then we have noone!

I prefer the selections based on proven talent (like the olympics) for the squad, perhaps with a WC, and then JL to choose players in the squad he thinks will be able to play well.

I personally think its not a bad thing that Alex isn't in the squad this time, but the way he was excluded is not fair. Hopefully it will mean that at the next DC he ups his game a little and at the moment can focus on just playing (and he seems to be playing well at the moment). I do think he struggles in the squad as #1 or #2 player, I think having him in the squad as a reserve would be much better for his confidence.

Predictions for tomorrow?

I'll go JG to lose 4-6 7-6 6-4 6-3
and CE to lose 6-2 7-5 7-5

hope I am wrong!

I had a colleague who was the ultimate pessimist, when I asked him why he always expected the worst his reply was - "that way I am never disappointed", so Count and Mikeduke with 2sets and 1set -you've left yourselves open to be disappointed!

As a lifetime supporter of The Canaries I guess I am the same  but I too will be hoping to be surprised today.

TV
Great Britain v Ukraine

Friday 6 March
1200-1500, BBC Two and BBC Sport website

Saturday 7 March
1300-1615, BBC One and BBC Sport website

Sunday 8 March
1200-1400, BBC Two and BBC Sport website 

-- Edited by mjd at 10:06, 2009-03-06

Mikeduke wrote:

---

On AB: I think he should have been at the trials to be able to show the media how good he was or wasn't. There isn't much the media/fans can do to complain if he has beaten everyone else in order to get there. To not take the #2 ranked player available devalues the whole ranking systems in my opinion. I agree with the comments above regarding the bad handling of AB by the LTA. He looks like he needs some sports psychology. If JG gets injured or something then we have noone!

I prefer the selections based on proven talent (like the olympics) for the squad, perhaps with a WC, and then JL to choose players in the squad he thinks will be able to play well.

I personally think its not a bad thing that Alex isn't in the squad this time, but the way he was excluded is not fair. Hopefully it will mean that at the next DC he ups his game a little and at the moment can focus on just playing (and he seems to be playing well at the moment). I do think he struggles in the squad as #1 or #2 player, I think having him in the squad as a reserve would be much better for his confidence.

---

Not sure I agree that it's the Davis Cup captain's job to support the ranking system. Part of his job is to make the right picks, which will not always be a matter of rankings. You could argue that paying too much attention to the rankings is why we've seen Boggo in the team, losing for so long.

The perceived Boggo problem is that he plays at a reasonably high level all year round but, when it comes to the big occasion, is likely to lower his game rather than raise it. He's already had countless chances to prove that and letting him into the play-offs might well have denied someone else the chance to see if they can raise their game in the Davis Cup. 

The chances are that the newcomers will fair just as badly as Boggo in the Davis Cup but at least there's a possibility that they'll take to the tournament like a duck to water, in a way we have reasonable certainty that Boggo won't.

I said this days ago before Andy was out....feel it more so today....I wish Boggo was playing.....there....off my chest....for like another 45 mins....lol

steven wrote:

---

Stakh says again that he's very happy that neither Boggo nor Bloomers are in the team.

---

There's an element on truth in that I guess, but it what he has to say really to try and make the team that has been selected feel worse about themselves.