Davis Cup 2015 - World Group Semi-Final - 18th-20th September

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Davis Cup 2015 - World Group Semi-Final - 18th-20th September

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:
No doubt Leon's toughest decision since he became DC captain. You can make good arguments for all 3.

My sincere hope is that if the worst comes to the worst and we lose the tie, the result is not blamed on Leon and his selection. You are absolutely right that there is a good case for all three, but the truth is, whoever he picks, they are going to start as underdog for their matches.

I am dreading comments such as - "if only he had picked ****** ..........".

I guess the best way to avoid those comments is to win the tie.

LET'S GO GB, LET'S GO.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Doesn't Tomic look like Thanos KKKdis in the telegraph. Is it just me or do all Aussies look the same singlet, short and thongs.

I would be very happy to see and pleased for Kedders should he get the nod if not its

Let's go Evo for me

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

That is Kokkinakis not Tomic in the Telegraph!

I would rule Ward out of this tie on form unless he is showing whatever sparkle he has shown in previous DC practices.

If Kyle is recovered, he should play. If not, Evo would be my choice.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Really! You wouldn't think they'd make that type of mistake.

It's the telegraph, I think the tennis guy has been reeled in to write anti Corbyn rhetoric and this was knocked out by the non league football correspondent.

Very difficult though as its a head shot and it's hard to read the unique pattern of beer staining on the singlet that they use in Aussie immigration (much more sophisticated than the iris recognition technology we have at Heathrow)

All that said KKKis is definitely my favourite Aussie player at the mo, hope he gets whooped this weekend by Kyle in a battle of the phenoms.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, more a Grauniad type of thing.

The number of times I've gone "arghh !" when being initially taken with some quite interesting looking statistical graphs in their sports section then to realise that the numbers have clearly been botched somewhere.

FriendofLouieG · Lower Club Player

Dan would be my choice....Kyle in the wings

wolf · Tennis legend

It seems like Kyle will be fit, but I wonder if they will select 3 singles players in the squad this time if Kyle has a slight injury worry and maybe keep Evo back for a 5th rubber if needed. I just can't see him selecting James.

Ratty · County player

Bob in Spain wrote:

My sincere hope is that if the worst comes to the worst and we lose the tie, the result is not blamed on Leon and his selection. You are absolutely right that there is a good case for all three, but the truth is, whoever he picks, they are going to start as underdog for their matches.

That seems a tad unfair, whenever we win a tie he gets the credit for his brilliant team selection. smile

indiana · Tennis legend

Yea, if he doesn't play Andy I'm not promising to stay silent

Jaffa · Challenger level

Leon quite rightly keeeping his cards close to his chest. I have heard from my source though that from practice, Evo and Ward will be together tomorrow to decide the second player in the morning, then the two number 2's will practice in the afternoon...

indiana · Tennis legend

wolf wrote:
It seems like Kyle will be fit, but I wonder if they will select 3 singles players in the squad this time if Kyle has a slight injury worry and maybe keep Evo back for a 5th rubber if needed. I just can't see him selecting James.

Interesting. Given Jamie & Dom's doubles form, I'd been pretty sure that Leon would go with 2 doubles specialists, keeping open the option of Jamie & Andy or Jamie & Dom.

Ideally I'd prefer not to be probably committing to Andy playing 3 matches, but I can see the 3 singles players argument if remaining slight doubts about Kyle ( but he is otherwise still considered the best choice ).

I guess you then get into how slight is "slight" and if Kyle is ahead of the others, how much ahead.

Err, all the best Leon

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 16th of September 2015 10:13:25 PM

RJA · Hall of fame

indiana wrote:
wolf wrote:
It seems like Kyle will be fit, but I wonder if they will select 3 singles players in the squad this time if Kyle has a slight injury worry and maybe keep Evo back for a 5th rubber if needed. I just can't see him selecting James.
Interesting. Given Jamie & Dom's doubles form, I'd been pretty sure that Leon would go with 2 doubles specialists, keeping open the option of Jamie & Andy or Jamie & Dom.

I am pretty sure that Jamie and Dom will only play doubles in the event that we are 2-0 up. Yes Jamie and Dom are both in decent form but they would effectively be a scratch pairing. Sometimes two good doubles players simply don't gel and I just can't see Leon taking that risk. It it is 1-1, or heaven forbid 0-2, I will be amazed if it isn't Andy and Jamie in the doubles.

thejester · Satellite level

I hadn't even considered the idea of choosing 3 singles players. But now it's been mentioned, why not?
Most are in agreement that all things considered the Murray brothers are the best doubles PAIRING. Worst case scenario, we go into the doubles 2-0 down, in which case Andy has to play anyway as he is one half of that best pairing, so he plays all 3 days (pretty much as expected). Best case scenario we go into the doubles 2-0 up and rest Andy, playing one of Wardy or Evo (assuming Kedders plays singles on Friday) alongside Jamie in the dubs. Even if we lose the doubles, we then have a better rested Andy, and an alternative singles option on the final day needing to only win one of the two. It's late and I'm sure there's some glaringly obvious point I've failed to account for, but given that (as I say) Andy would almost certainly be preferred to Dom in doubles if we were behind (or possibly even level) I can't see an issue with it. Who that extra singles player would be, I do not know at all.

Even if Dan doesn't get the nod for one of those slots, it's great to see him involved in the DC set up once more. Allez

Spectator · All-time great

Yes, Mr Smith gets credit for brilliant work when we win - over the past few years, we have won almost every match against teams to whom, on paper, we should have lost. That we haven't is partially down to Mr Murray's brilliance, partially to Mr Ward's propensity to win matches he shouldn't, and partially to the odd mistake by the other team - but one can't really avoid thinking that Mr Smith must be doing something right as well. At least he hasn't done anything as questionable as poor M Clément's decision on the doubles in July.

But I'm with BiS. Against Australia, we "should" win Mr Murray junior's two singles matches. And I'd say we should probably win the doubles. But I wouldn't underestimate Groth and Hewitt ... and am very conscious of the risks involved in either three days for Mr Murray or playing a pair that don't normally play together, even if they are both good. And if we win any of the 2nd singles, it would be a delightful surprise; if we don't, I don't think it will be because Mr Smith picked wrongly.

Indeed, one is rather minded of some French players' criticism of Clément for the loss in Lille last year. They were playing two players with 19 (now, 18 then) GS titles to their name with a team of people who had none (and all of whom had losing records against Federer) ... and it was the captain's fault they lost? Really?

Edited following Jeff Stelling's reminder that it was Tomic, not Kyrgios, likely to be the reverse match!

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 17th of September 2015 07:50:20 AM