It's not like all the teams in the World Group have singles players on a completely different level to our no.2, be it Baker/Ward/Goodall/Evo/Boggo etc.

Of the teams playing Round 1 this weekend many contain singles players our no.2 would have a 'chance' of beating.

Canada - (Dancevic WR 166)
Spain - (Ramos WR 51) if not played on clay
Belgium - (Rochus WR 127)
Brazil - (Alves WR 141)
Israel - (Weintraub WR 173, Sela WR 106)
Kazakhstan - (Golubev WR 187, Korolev WR 211)
Austria - (Haider-Maurer WR 107)
Switzerland - (Laaksonen WR 289)

So 8 out of 16 teams we would have a decent chance of picking up a singles point outside of Andy, although obviously Spain and Switzerland wouldn't be on the list if they were at full strength. That's a significant number of teams we would be 'competitive' against right now with a team of Baker, Ward, Fleming, Marray.

I wouldn't say we'd be favourites against any of them but the argument of Andy not playing because "we'd lose anyway" seems ridiculous. What's the point of sport if the underdogs never bother turning up because "we'd lose anyway." With Andy added to the team we would be strong favourites against all of those teams above and be very closely matched against the other 8 teams where the doubles rubber could prove decisive.

The Slovakian team we beat this time last year without Andy is stronger than many teams in the WG.

I'm disappointed whenever Andy pulls out of DC duties, but understand it doesn't always fit into his playing plans. In my opinion the excuse, "we need more time to prepare for the claycourt season / French Open" is acceptable. The excuse "well even with me in the team we're not guaranteed to win anyway and without me we're certain to lose so what's the point anyway" isn't acceptable.

I had thought that the appointment of Leon Smith to Head of GB Elite tennis, which at the time the press reported was not a universally popular decision amongst the players and pundits, had a clear political element to it (with the LTA, this goes with the territory!!!). The argument was that as Andy's former coach, he would be more likely to persuade him to take part in Davis Cup more often than an alterative appointment. Greg Rusedski, for example. I'm not saying Mr Smith was not a great appointment, I'm sure he is, simply that there was probably an Andy Murray angle to it.

Davis Cup and Wimbledon are the 2 events which galvanise press interest in tennis and the LTA the most in the UK, often with very negative headlines. So you can hardly criticise the LTA for factoring this in to their thinking.

However as Neil Harman of the times pointed out this week, this Russia tie is the 7th under Leon Smith, and Andy has only agreed to turn up twice. So the strategy hasn't exactly worked. Furthermore, if as has been reported, the LTA had also offered to prepare the Ricoh as an indoor clay court, to coincide with Andy's Roland Garros preparations, we have to say that this is a great concession (hats off to them), and if that still wasn't enough for Andy, I think his position is now crystal clear! With Lendl on board, its a clear policy

Personally, if tailoring Andy's programme towards the Grand Slams means missing out on the Davis Cup, it's a shame but so be it........and as long as he WINS his fair share of them, I don't think we should complain too loudly. A far better strategy to encourage Andy would be to build a team of 5-10 other players in the top 250 (France and Spain have about 25), with 2 or 3 in the top 100, such that we would have a sporting chance of actually WINNING the Davis Cup, not simply getting promoted from our lowly position. At that point, I'm sure he would sign up........we're not even close to getting there.....so until then, I'm on Andy's side.

Josh wrote:

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It's not like all the teams in the World Group have singles players on a completely different level to our no.2, be it Baker/Ward/Goodall/Evo/Boggo etc.

Of the teams playing Round 1 this weekend many contain singles players our no.2 would have a 'chance' of beating.

Canada - (Dancevic WR 166)
Spain - (Ramos WR 51) if not played on clay
Belgium - (Rochus WR 127)
Brazil - (Alves WR 141)
Israel - (Weintraub WR 173, Sela WR 106)
Kazakhstan - (Golubev WR 187, Korolev WR 211)
Austria - (Haider-Maurer WR 107)
Switzerland - (Laaksonen WR 289)

So 8 out of 16 teams we would have a decent chance of picking up a singles point outside of Andy, although obviously Spain and Switzerland wouldn't be on the list if they were at full strength. That's a significant number of teams we would be 'competitive' against right now with a team of Baker, Ward, Fleming, Marray.

I wouldn't say we'd be favourites against any of them but the argument of Andy not playing because "we'd lose anyway" seems ridiculous. What's the point of sport if the underdogs never bother turning up because "we'd lose anyway." With Andy added to the team we would be strong favourites against all of those teams above and be very closely matched against the other 8 teams where the doubles rubber could prove decisive.

The Slovakian team we beat this time last year without Andy is stronger than many teams in the WG.

I'm disappointed whenever Andy pulls out of DC duties, but understand it doesn't always fit into his playing plans. In my opinion the excuse, "we need more time to prepare for the claycourt season / French Open" is acceptable. The excuse "well even with me in the team we're not guaranteed to win anyway and without me we're certain to lose so what's the point anyway" isn't acceptable.

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Yes, and in actual fact even if our no 2 couldn't beat another team's second player, they could be ranked a zillion and GB could still win at this level and even be competitive with some teams in the World Group. Andy and a strong doubles pair ( and hopefully Colin and Jonny will prove that ) can win 3 matches, winning 3 matches clearly wins a tie.

Yes, especially at higher levels there is no margin without that second half decent singles player, and some nations can stick in singles players into doubles to help produce very good unexpected partnerships.

But Andy is not playing for Andy selfish reasons. I don't necessarily condemn that and as a  big Andy supporter I clearly want him to be advancing his own career and he has much still to achieve. Let's not pretend it is for any other reason, related to the strength of other players.

After Jamie Bakers and James WArds results this week I dont blame Andy for not playing the next Davis Cup tie

Yep, I was responding more to scottie1's and Madeline's opinion that the reason Andy shouldn't play is because the rest of the team isn't good enough. I've seen nothing to suggest Andy shares that viewpoint and the fact that he has previously played in 2 ties under Leon Smith's captaincy with the same quality of teammates available would agree that 'carrying' the team had no bearing on his decision to make himself unavailable.

To avoid confusion, since Sally (daisy) mentions people being away over the Easter break, DC is the weekend after Easter. Obviously that can still make it difficult for people who have other plans over Easter, which is no doubt what Sally meant, but it's not the Easter weekend itself.

Given that we already know that Andy isn't going to play and that it's not in Scotland, I imagine that the AMFF group going will be a bit more skewed towards general GB fans than Andy-only fans than usual, so if you haven't tried this before, this is as good a time as any.

Those who are British Tennis (i.e. LTA) Members will notice that the reduced rates they've offered AMFFers are only the same as the BTM discounted rates, but even so, the AMFF seats tend to be very good far more often than not (and it looks like they definitely are this time) and it's much more fun watching DC with a group of like-minded, slightly barmy people than it is being stuck in a section full of strangers / boringly sane people.

-- Edited by steven on Monday 4th of February 2013 07:12:30 PM

steven wrote:

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To avoid confusion, since Sally (daisy) mentions people being away over the Easter break, DC is the weekend after Easter. Obviously that can still make it difficult for people who have other plans over Easter, which is no doubt what Sally meant, but it's not the Easter weekend itself.

Given that we already know that Andy isn't going to play and that it's not in Scotland, I imagine that the AMFF group going will be a bit more skewed towards general GB fans than Andy-only fans than usual, so if you haven't tried this before, this is as good a time as any.

Those who are British Tennis (i.e. LTA) Members will notice that the reduced rates they've offered AMFFers are only the same as the BTM discounted rates, but even so, the AMFF seats tend to be very good far more often than not (and it looks like they definitely are this time) and it's much more fun watching DC with a group of like-minded, slightly barmy people than it is being stuck in a section full of strangers / boringly sane people.

-- Edited by steven on Monday 4th of February 2013 07:12:30 PM

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Thanks Steven!

We've got 5 spaces left to fill for all 3 days if anyone on here is interested @ £50+£1.50 p&p. Also, 2 spaces on Friday and 2 spaces on Sunday if someone can only come for a day @ £25+£1.50 p&p.

Quite a few of us are staying at the Hilton Hotel and using our cars to ferry folks over (Friday/Sunday) from there to the Ricoh 'cos sharing will help keep costs down.  On the Saturday there's a Coventry City home match so we're sharing taxis.

We're hoping to really give the cheering some welly so the more the merrier!!! 

There's a seating plan below to show where we'll be ...



.........................1......... 2.............. 3........... 4........ 5
..................... ...^.........^.............. ^...........^........ ^

Our seats are in section 4, the right inner squiggle, and our 4 rows are in the narrow section there.
So, we are NOT immediately behind the team bench but very close and it should enable us to
get some decent close-up photos of the team.
I know darned well that the LTA allocates the middle section (3) to the player guests/friends/family and section (2) to the left of the Umpire + some of (3) will be for Russian officials/team/away supporters.