Our Next DC opponents?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Our Next DC opponents?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

hmm ok that's gone a bit wonky donky.

still surely we can get a win here, do some of these countries even have full time professionals. if we draw Cyprus, Lavtia or Bulgaria though Murray will need to play i reckon.

What about Georgia, Monaco or Moldova?

WelshPhil · Social player

We are seeded 1 in i group II SO we will get one of the unseeded 8 ??

from DC Site bottom of page : http://www.daviscup.com/news/newsarticle.asp?articleid=16313

EUROPE/AFRICA ZONE GROUP II

1. GREAT BRITAIN
2. F.Y.R. MACEDONIA
3. MONACO
4. CYPRUS
5. PORTUGAL
6. SLOVENIA
7. IRELAND
8. HUNGARY

Remaining Nations: Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, Turkey

-- Edited by WelshPhil on Monday 21st of September 2009 04:14:43 PM

-- Edited by WelshPhil on Monday 21st of September 2009 04:18:56 PM

Drew · Sep 21, 2009

I can keep cheap flights to Tallin (Estonia) and know some folk there so thats my preference

Joking aside this is a truely awful position. But I dont blame the players.

Some idiot on the beeb said Evo did care about getting beaten....what match was he watching ?

Draper has had his time.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Drew wrote:

Some idiot on the beeb said Evo did care about getting beaten....what match was he watching ?

is this a Count style typo? i'm confused?

where's Steven i wonder, by now he'd have our potential opponents stats mapped out with player CH's and last meeting results.

hmm he probably tried to hook up with those union jack dress wearing girls. they were probably the highlight of the Sunday to be fair.

spud · Challenger qualifying

I'd love to play Ireland !! Lets see if England, Wales and Scotland can take em on.

wolf · Tennis legend

Possible home ties: Bulgaria, Denmark, Norway

Possible away tie: Egypt

Possible ties that will be drawn by lot: Bosnia/Herzegovina, Estonia, Lithuania, Turkey

British_is_Best · County player

Although I cannot boast the same level of statistical knowledge as steven I have given it a go, looking at the 8 teams we could play. On the face of it I believe only Bulgaria, Denmark and Turkey could give us a genuine fight assuming Murray does not take part. Here are the players ranked inside the top 500 that each nation has at their disposal:

Bosnia/Herzegovina: Setkovic (426)
Bulgaria: Dimitrov (290)
Denmark: Pless (279), Nielsen (296)
Egypt: Maamoun (353), Sabry (445)
Estonia: Zopp (435)
Lithuania: Berankis (432)
Norway: None!
Turkey: Ihan (182)

Therefore, looking at it the only truely dangerous players would probably be Dimitrov, Pless, Nielsen and Ihan so really we should have an excellent chance here to bed in some players with a straightforward first match and get them used to Davis Cup pressure.

john · Top national player

To put it bluntly, who, if anyone, cares right now?

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Me.

Norway

Vandenburg · Futures level

ive returned from MTF for one last post! because madeline has highlighted a life long point

laugh and say that Norway have no top 500 players, its stats and its fact, but you bet that the Norwegain ranked 600+ will put more effort and passion into his performance than any of the brits, because unlike the spoilt party animals like evans n co, playing for the nation and wearing the red means something,
thats what i saw in the poles ranked very low at the wkend,they were hungry regardless of there atp ranking, there were patriotic and represented their nation with pride,

andrew'(ive got a fake tan from gmtv)' castle said the poles got 750k funding for the whole team annualy!

disgrace!

!BEWARE!

BORRETTI IS COMING! AND IS GOING TO MAKE A MOCKERY of the GB TEAM...........

indiana · Tennis legend

I don't see that anyone inside the top 500 can be taken as "straightforward".

Indeed, going by Sunday you can be outside the top 500 and not straightforward for us.

Of course, even if playing today, things like surface and form, and for Davis Cup probably experience, so important anyway.

I'm with Mad. Norway at home for starters would seem to be a good tie to ease a couple of guys in with some potential live DaviS Cup wins.

Edit : Furthermore, Norway would be good fun for some banter woith Vandenburg. Bring it on smile

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 21st of September 2009 10:50:01 PM

James · Satellite level

I'm surprised that Norway has a DC team - I always thought that it was a town in Sweden.

Bring on the Norwish!

steven · Tennis legend

Count Zero wrote:
where's Steven i wonder, by now he'd have our potential opponents stats mapped out with player CH's and last meeting results.
hmm he probably tried to hook up with those union jack dress wearing girls. they were probably the highlight of the Sunday to be fair.

LOL ... though it's true that I only returned yesterday and I'm not complaining about the female company on Sunday evening, or indeed Monday morning. All far too innocent for your dirty mind though and it wasn't the UJ girls, I'm bit too old for them!

Though never say never, I guess - when I left Pizza Express on Saturday night, Andrew Castle had four teenage girls on his knee and was heard to say rather worriedly "Are you going to send one of these pictures to my wife?" (I hasten to add, before he sues me, that I'm deliberately misrepresenting what the innocent, under siege Mr Castle said for comic effect! biggrin

)

In fact, I had all that stuff mapped out before I left (knowing I'd get asked while I was there and expected to know!), but I didn't want to post possible G1 and G2 match ups before we knew which group we were going to be in.

Anyway, here we are, first a correction to what's gone so far, then the stats so you can decide how you want the draw to look ... we'll then get the opposite happening of course.

EAZ G2 Structure

Europe/Africa Zone group 2 always consists of exactly 16 teams, so unlike G1 (which often has byes in R1 depending on how many European teams are in the World Group that year), you have to win three ties to gain promotion, but you only have to play a relegation play-off if you lose in R1, unlike group 1 where you may have to play in a relegation playoff if you have a bye in R1 and lose in R2.

Schedule

5-7 March 2010 (the weekend before Indian Wells)

R2 - 9-11 July 2010 (the weekend after Wimby ends)

Promotion playoffs - 17-19 September 2010 (the weekend after the US Open ends)

Choice of ground

The previous tie against a country is only taken into account for choice of ground purposes if it was played in 1970 or later. This means that, contrary to what it says above:

a) If we play Bulgaria, the home team will be chosen by lot instead of us automatically being at home because we last played them (away) in 1967.

b) If we play Ireland, the home team will be chosen by lot instead of us automatically being away because we last played them (home) in 1969.

c) If we play Denmark, the home team will be chosen by lot instead of us automatically being at home because we last played them (away) in 1965.

d) If we play Norway, the home team will be chosen by lot instead of us automatically being at home, because we haven't played them since just before the Queen's coronation in 1953!

One consequence of the above is that we are not guaranteed a home tie in R1 whichever of the 8 possible teams we draw.

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 22nd of September 2009 07:22:34 AM

steven · Tennis legend

POSSIBLE R1 OPPONENTS - draw on Wednesday (likely venues given before for those who have already talked about starting to plan trips should we play away!)

Key: DCR = DC ranking - H2h (GB first) - last played (GB score first), venue if play them in 2010

Who played in their first two singles rubbers in their last tie plus their current no. 1 player if he wasn't one of them.

Bulgaria - DCR 58 - H2H 1-0 - last: 5-0 away in 1967, pre-1970 so hosts would be decided by lot - they tend to play home ties in their second city, Plovdiv

Grigor Dimitrov WR 255, Tihomir Grozdanov WR 585, Todor Enev WR 1044 - if Grisha continues to improve, they should become a decent team, albeit a one-player team!

Denmark - DCR 59 - H2H 2-1, the away team winning each time, first two in the 1920s - last: 3-1 away in 1965, pre-1970 so hosts would be decided by lot - they have played three home ties in the last five years, all in different cities

Frederik Nielsen WR 299, Martin Pedersen WR 588 - legendary hammer of the Brits Freddie Nielsen used to play a lot of GB events and his 22-match Brit-bashing streak in between a loss to Colin Fleming in July 2006 and his defeat by Chris Eaton in September 2008 is the longest I am aware of, beating even John McEnroe's 20 match Brit-bashing streak (albeit at a higher level!) from 1978-92!

Lithuania - DCR 62 - H2H 0-0, so hosts would be decided by lot - they have only ever played two home ties, in Siauliai and (this year) in Vilnius, but also hosted G3 one year in Kaunas

Ricardas Berankis WR 455, Gvidas Sabeckis WR 594

Egypt - DCR 63 - H2H 1-1 - last: 5-0 at home in 1996, so we would play away - they have played all recent home ties in various clubs in Cairo

Karim Maamoun WR 351, Sherif Sabry 458

The last time we played away to Egypt in 1974 saw perhaps our biggest DC disaster in living memory (and that's saying something!), when a GB team consisting of a certain John Lloyd and his brother David suffered a 0-5 drubbing at the hands of Ismail el Shafei and Aly el Dawoudi, winning just 2/17 sets and losing a 10-8 set and two 8-6 sets. Greg, Tim & Broad/Petchey got revenge 22 years later when David was the GB captain, so I guess John getting revenge as captain too is long overdue!

Norway - DCR 74 - H2H 2-0, both away - last: 5-0 away in 1953, so hosts would be decided by lot - they play most home ties in Oslo, but sometimes in Asker or Svingvoll

Erling Tveit WR 820, Stian Boretti WR 896

Promoted this year, I remember trying to work out with BT.net's resident Norwegian what the chances of us ending up in the same group as Norway for 2010 were ... low, but clearly not low enough!

Estonia - DCR 77 - H2H 0-0, so hosts would be decided by lot - all 4 home ties this century were played in Tallinn

Jurgen Zopp WR 445, Jaak Poldma WR 913

Estonia rode their luck to get promotion from G3 this year, their final 1st-4th place round robin win against Greece consisting of a 3-0 ret., a 5-0 ret. and a w/o in the doubles!

Turkey - DCR 78 - H2H 0-0, so hosts would be decided by lot - home ties usually played in Istanbul, sometimes in Antalya

Marsel Ilhan (born in Uzbekistan!) WR 186, Haluk Akkoyan WR 1376

Turkey also got promoted from G3 this year, from the same section as Estonia.

Bosnia-Hercegovina - DCR 80= - H2H 0-0, so venue would be decided by lot - they hosted G3 in 2006 in second city Banja Luka and have never played a home tie apart from that, so Banja Luka or Sarajevo (both of which have held Challenger events) are good bets if we end up away to them

Aldin Setkic WR 433, Ismar Goncic WR 570

Another promoted team.

POSSIBLE LATER ROUND OPPONENTS

All of the above, plus the seeded teams listed in the first post, except no. 2 seeds FYR Macedonia, who should be in the other half of the draw and hence unable to meet us in 2010. I haven't looked at likely venues if we play away this time, since we can't play any of these teams in the first set of ties.

(3) Monaco - DCR 47 - H2H 3-0 (5-0 each time) - last: 5-0 at home in 1995, so we would play them in Monaco

Lisnard didn't play in the last tie, Balleret was 2008 Cincy pick 'em winner Edward Seator's biggest ever professional scalp, and Couillard really does appear to almost be named after what Andrew Castle talks a lot of, so this is the seed 3/4 we want in our section of the draw - a September trip to Monaco would be my top pick for an away tie too!

(4) Cyprus - DCR 50 - H2H 0-0, so the hosts would be decided by lot

Marcos Baghdatis WR 103, Phodos Kallias WR 475

Cyprus DC ties are always the same - Baggy wins his singles rubbers, Kallias (or anyone else) loses his and it's decided by the doubles - unfortunately, Kallias is starting to get a bit better and they've been winning doubles rubbers this year, though I think Hutch & Fleming or Flemski should be able to beat them and it would be pretty safe even if Andy didn't play.

(5) Portugal - DCR 52 - H2H 3-1 - last: 5-0 at home in 2001, so we would play away, probably somewhere on the Algarve

Frederico Gil WR 102, Rui Machado WR 114

Machado's name sounds like a gruesome way to meet your fate and I've called him 'death by' since he did a serial Brit bash in a set of Futures in Portugal last year during a run that got him into the ITFs top 10 Futures main draw streaks of all-time list. The Algerian who faced him in DC recently certainly suffered that fate, when he got triple bagelled. This would be one tough team to play away on clay! Btw all three past wins were 5-0, but Petch/Bates lost 1-4 to them in Porto in 1994.

(6) Slovenia - DCR 53 - H2H 1-0 - last: 4-1 at home in 1996, so we would play away

Blaz Kavcic WR 149, Grega Zemlja WR 185

Another one that would be tough for an Andy-less team away on clay.

(7) Ireland - DCR 55 - H2H 2-0, both 5-0 at home - last: 5-0 at home in 1969, pre-1970 so the hosts would be decided by lot

Louk Sorensen WR 380, Conor Niland WR 439

Both solid players who have done ok in Challengers.

(8) Hungary - DCR 56 - H2H 2-1 - last: 2-3 away on clay in 1993, so we would play at home

Attila Balazs WR 364, Denes Lukacs WR 935

Easily the best seeded team for GB to get in R2.

N.B. Needless to say, if we were away, it would almost certainly be on clay, in which case GB no. 2 James Ward (the first Brit to win a clay court Challenger since Tim Henman in the 1990s) would be a shoe-in for the team if he has recovered fully from illness by then.

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 22nd of September 2009 07:23:10 AM