Davis Cup 2015 - World Group Quarter Final - 17th-19th July

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

RE: Davis Cup 2015 - World Group Quarter Final - 17-19th July

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

RE: Davis Cup 2015 - World Group Quarter Final - 17th-19th July

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

And, of course, Gilles came within a whisker of losing to WR 73 Struff . . .

I'm fond of Gilles, too, (and the other guys . . well, most of them) but, agree with Madeline, they get plenty of things going their way, would be nice if GB socked 'em one (and Wardy especially).

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

BeefyDeedz wrote:
Grass is clearly the best venue for the tie. Murray will have won 12 matches in a row on the surface and there won't be any other choice, really.

The list of possible venues as discussed in today's Times:

Emirates Arena, Glasgow: An indoor grass court is not a viable option, but the tie could again be played on an indoor hard court.

Devonshire Park, Eastbourne: Britain have not played a home tie there since beating Turkey in 2010. Not renowned for its atmosphere.

Nottingham Tennis Centre: Facilities are in place for the pre-Wimbledon tournament, but Britain have not played there since 1998.

Wimbledon N° 1 Court: As the tie takes place a week after the Championships, the grass would still be regenerating & enabling work is set to begin on the planned retractable roof.

RJA · Hall of fame

Tradition alone demands that any tie played in Britain during July should be on grass and given that both teams have players who love the surface it would be an even greater crime to play it on hard court.

These things of course pale into insignificance. The tie will be played on whatever surface Andy Murray wants it played on and given that he always has difficulties in his first few matches on hard court after playing the grass court season I can't imagine he would even contemplate a surface other than grass.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

What about Queens?

RJA · Hall of fame

Coup Droit wrote:
And, of course, Gilles came within a whisker of losing to WR 73 Struff . . .

I'm fond of Gilles, too, (and the other guys . . well, most of them) but, agree with Madeline, they get plenty of things going their way, would be nice if GB socked 'em one (and Wardy especially).

Apparently the court in Germany was ultra fast and in such conditions Struff is a much tougher proposition than WR 73 suggests.

However if we do play on grass I can't see Simon playing. On that surface I would say that Tsonga, Gasquet and Monfils are all much better options and you could even make a case for Benneteau.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Madeline wrote:
What about Queens?

They are not prepared to keep the stands up for four weeks.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, very unsightly old boy. Chaps don't want to go for a hit about with these ugly structures around.

paulisi · Tennis legend

In order to meet demand you need a capacity of 10,000+(and then i'd expect a sell out within minutes)

If you look round the venues, I can only see Wimbledon or the O2 meeting this demand

Queens holds 7000
Nottingham and Birmingham 3000
Glasgow 7500
Eastbourne 8000

I'm not sure how many you could get in the multi use venues such as Manchester MEN, Newcastle Arena etc - but they tend to be booked up well in advance anyway.

goldenboy · Club Coach

o2 will be booked up already i'm sure

though maybe they'll be creative and purpose build a court somewhere like horseguards parade!

scottie1 · Futures level

The Hydro on Glasgow holds about 12000 people Bette Middler plays on the Monday of that week but it could be laid for hard courts

indiana · Tennis legend

Delbonis has beaten Bellucci in 4 sets to complete the turnaround for Argentina vs Brazil.

Quarter finals :

Great Britain home to France
Australia home to Kazakhstan
Argentina home to Serbia
Belgium home to Canada

If we make further progress we would be :

Home to : Australia, Argentina
Away to : Serbia, Belgium
By lot : Kazakhstan, Canada

Home to France, Australia and finally Argentina sounds fine to me :)

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Home to France, Australia and finally Argentina sounds fine to me :)

Hard to think of three countries (+ the US) it would be sweeter to beat, really wink

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, I wondered about the Hydro when they chose the Emirates. I knew it had a substantially bigger potential capacity, just didn't know its suitability for tennis. Maybe it wasn't available for the tie vs USA.