Good news that Murray is in. The magazine that I work for has a good piece about the Davis Cup this month. Personally, I think if we have Murray, the best ranked British player ever, this definitely will give Britain a chance to stay in group 1. Hopefully he can take home the men's title too. But, like Murray says in the BBC link, all the top-seeded men are showing good form right now so it's hard to tell.
I think Andy's commitment to the Davis Cup has been rather less than total in the past ( which disappoints me ).
Injury withdrawals I can accept, and indeed I have argued in his favour that he was probably best not playing when he has had injury doubts before a particular tie in Glasgow as against some ( even here ) "oh I've got tickets, it's not fair" comments.
The one that really disappointed me was the very late withdrawal from clay tie in Argentina. I'm not convinced he ever wanted to play that one and his / his team's bad communication about his late withdrawal re apparently protection against possible problems re changing surfaces did not reflect well ( as I think Jamie let him know ! )
The BBC article headlining his commitment to the Poland match quotes him as saying : "If I feel fresh and 100% fit, I will be there..." That's no commitment whatever ( and to be fair he couldn't absolutely commit but I'm not encouraged by how he words it ), it's as in the past indicating he'd like to play, but kinda let's wait and see.
Well, lik so many here, I really want to see Andy in the US Open final. If he is, I am not quite sure how "fresh and 100% fit" he will be feeling come the following Friday. Hmm..
I'd personally rather he played even if rather less than fresh, please, especially given the recent unfortunate number of no-shows.
I'd imagine Boggo playing in St Remy is more to do with the fact it is the only hard court event that week, and so if he didn't play it, it would be at least three (and maybe four weeks if he loses early in US Open qualies) without playing a tournament.
And if he then was selected for the DC, it becomes five weeks, and with all the challengers for the next two weeks on a clay court, it would become seven weeks for him without having much chance to score ranking points if he didn't play this challenger.
I'd imagine if Boggo isn't selected for DC, he'll play Metz qualies instead, and then maybe Thailand/Kuala Lumpur qualies the following week.
Snippet from the tail end of OEM's article in today's Times (following on from a report on Laura Robson & a few words about Bally - I presume Mel South's win came too late for the print deadline):
Unfortunately, the men's story is not quite so heartening. Alex Bogdanovic, who has been told he will not figure in Great Britain's Davis Cup Europe/Africa group one tie against Poland in Liverpool next month, had a match point in the second set against Alexander Peya, of Austria, but lost 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.
Well I'm pleased about that - I still think he needs to concentrate on improving his ranking and interruptions ot his preferred schedule don't add anything to his points tally. Still time for Davis Cup glory when he's higher up the rankings and playing with greater confidence.