Week 31 - ATP 500 Series ($1,402,000) - Washington, USA

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

RE: Week 31 - ATP 500 Series ($1,402,000) - Washington, USA

spud · Challenger qualifying

ForeverDelayed wrote:

spud wrote:

Well that shows without Murray we are dead in the DC. Not being much of a fan of him myself i think its only Boggo who can take Kubot, but he will crack under pressure fo sure. So the 2nd singles place is still very open in my eyes.

These are the possibles from m view:

Evo- Probably most improved player this year- great experience for him.
Goodall-Best player after Bogdanovic
Ward-Shown he can win a challenger- prob is after his grass showing- defo prefers slower courts.
Eaton- Best at loving the pressure, mentally, the toughest on big stage, but has had a crap year- except for DC.
Bogdanovic- 2nd best in Britain playing tennis, near Rob Dee in rankings for mental toughness.
Flemski- Should be put in the team after so much success,Flembo being handy at singles as well.

Who will get it, any thoughts yet and could someone please start a thread, i would but i dont know if any of you want it in a certain way.

Still think the best chance of winning the tie is for Murray to win all three rubbers, but the Polish singles players aren't that great and it would only take one good performance to win the tie.

And the likes of Kubot/Janowicz/Olejniczak/Gawron aren't exactly world beaters at singles and the likes of Goodall and Boggo would have a fairly good chance of winning against them, especially against their number two.

And given that Kubot hasn't played Davis Cup since 2007 and I'm sure I remember some kind of dispute he was having with the federation, it's no guarentee that he will play, and if he doesn't, then it would be embarrassing if we couldn't win three singles rubbers.

Flemski have had a great season but unless they have a really good summer I wouldn't select them for this tie because of who the opposition is. If they do play Frystenburg/Matkowski, who will be the likely Polish pair, they haven't got a great shot of winning so picking two doubles specialists is an unneccessary risk that is unlikely to pay off.

Even though Hutchins is in a terrible run of form, he'd still be the pick for the doubles player as he will surely find some kind of form before the Davis Cup, and if he does, he'll have experience of playing with either Murray (if he wants to play all three days) or Goodall, who would also be in the squad as second/third singles player and to play doubles if Murray doesn't want to.

4th spot would go to either Boggo, Evans or Ward. Evans or Ward would be the most likely pick at the moment, but not convinced about Ward on a faster court and Evans needs to have some consistant results before he is really in contention. Probably be best for Boggo not to play DC, but he would have the best chance of winning a tie if he kept his head together.

The squad I'd take then is:

Murray
Hutchins
Goodall
Boggo/Ward/Evans

With the line-up being:

Murray
***Goodall
Murray/Goodall and Hutchins
Murray
***Boggo/Ward/Evans

(not sure which way round I'd have the second singles player, but they would play one match each)

As long as Murray plays, I'd back us to win this tie, as he is two guarenteed rubbers and given who Poland have, you'd hope either one singles or the upset in doubles could be achieved.

If Murray doesn't play, it becomes a lot harder, but still not impossible, as long as the players raise their level.

Cheers for your thoughts mate, I agree with really all of that and a good point on how Josh and Ross could be a pair for the doubles, being great friends and having a long successful partnership before.

What are your thoughts on Eaton being in the team FD or anybody for that matter? Yeh he has had an awful year on the singles court, but then again he had an awful start to the year until the big stage came with the play offs and tie , which he played very well in. Sooo... any thoughts?

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

^^^

Unless Eaton does something over the next few weeks, I wouldn't consider him for the team at the moment as his form is non-existant.

However, if he does manage to put a couple of results together and the likes of Evans and Ward have a bad few weeks, then I'd consider having Eaton in the squad as he does seem to rise to the occassion.

But unless he finds some form, he's not in contention for a spot at the moment.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

I get the impression that Dan was really going for his first serve today, causing the lower percentage. If you saw his other matches recently he's had a higher % but been losing a lot of points on his first serve, so maybe he went for it a bit more. Whatever happens, it needs work!

To me the second singles player should be either Dan or Boggo. I think Alex's attitude and temperament have improved a lot recently and he thrives indoors. Evo is obviously the form player at the moment.

Wardy is great on clay but seems to have forgotten how to play on quicker surfaces. i don't understand the love-in for Goodall, he'll lose both matches in 3 sets, no baseline ability and too low first serve %. Eaton has had a bad year and im not sure id take a risk, although he does love these occasions. Bloomers is rusty, Coxy is untried vs 300+ players.

I think the options are

Murray
Boggo
Evo
Hutchins

or

Murray
Boggo/Evo
Flemski

Maybe with the first team Boggo could play the low pressure match against Kubot and Evo the high pressure match vs Janowicz!

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

The Knight wrote:

Wardy is great on clay but seems to have forgotten how to play on quicker surfaces. i don't understand the love-in for Goodall, he'll lose both matches in 3 sets, no baseline ability and too low first serve %. Eaton has had a bad year and im not sure id take a risk, although he does love these occasions. Bloomers is rusty, Coxy is untried vs 300+ players.

The thing about Goodall is that he's also an option for doubles which in a 4 man DC squad is a plus.

If we go with Flemski, then perhaps Goodall shouldn't be in the squad, but if we pick Hutchins and three singles players, then obviously at least one of the singles players has to be able to play doubles to give us a chance in that rubber.

Of the players fighting for the second singles spot behind Murray, only Goodall and Boggo are half-decent doubles players, and Boggo probably isn't even that, so unless Murray is going to play the doubles, or you have a specialist doubles team, Goodall needs to be in the squad to play the doubles rubber if Murray doesn't want to, and he's also got a chance of winning his singles match as well.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

Honestly Goodall is potentially quite a good doubles player, i just don't rate him at singles in the slightest

Vandenburg · Futures level

still think evans will finish years as numbr 2 brit?

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

who else is there? Josh Badall?