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

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

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

indiana · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
LordBrownof wrote:
Should Ward, Edmund and Evans change their schedules to play some extra clay tournaments before November?
In a word, "YES".

If there are anyway suitable Brazilian tournaments, Bob in Brazil might be on hand to help them.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Bob in Spain wrote:
LordBrownof wrote:
Should Ward, Edmund and Evans change their schedules to play some extra clay tournaments before November?
In a word, "YES".
If there are anyway suitable Brazilian tournaments, Bob in Brazil might be on hand to help them.

I'll have a word wink

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

There are quite a few nice clay court money tournaments in the south of France over the next month or two.

If they fancy having a bit of a knock around

Shhh · Challenger level

To play in the final is a wonderful opportunity and, the 2nd singles place is up for grabs. You would assume a player may say never mind to his own ranking and earnings for a few weeks and do what they can on the clay to put themselves in with the best chance? I am sure the end of November is the sort of occasion that they play the sport for.

paulisi · Tennis legend

The venue and surface are going to be determined by capacity issues.

The final venue has to have a min capacity of 12000. At that time of year it would have to be indoors. So it could be indoor clay or hard court

There were initial rumours of Ghent, but I'm not sure the venue is big enough.

Anyway, the easiest way to Belgium is by Eurostar and tickets are around £100 return at present and that includes a transfer to any other city by train. Tickets may be the hardest to come by although we are guaranteed a min 10% of capacity.

I want to go, if I can get a ticket.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Well damn. Just got in to see that it will be Belgium (not that I could have gone wherever it was). I suppose it saves us the hassle of trying to find somewhere suitable, but I did like the idea of Argentina on a fastish hard court.

Can we persuade Belgium to play the Proclaimers in the intervals?

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

OK. A couple of quick questions for those "in the know".

1) What is the deadline date for naming the venue?
2) How do we stand seedings wise for next season based on reaching the final?

A1 tennis academy · Satellite level

Frequent user on euro tunnel £86 return by car I will probably go and coincide with a business trip

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

A1 tennis academy wrote:
Frequent user on euro tunnel £86 return by car I will probably go and coincide with a business trip

See you there. I will be good to finally meet in person.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
OK. A couple of quick questions for those "in the know".

1) What is the deadline date for naming the venue?
2) How do we stand seedings wise for next season based on reaching the final?

I believe they have 7 days as they had to nominate by July 1st.

We were ranked 6th coming into the semi final. I'm not sure we can climb much more unless we are champions.

Ratty · County player

Good show and all that ...

... but I thought the Davis Cup was supposed to be a sort of, er, TEAM contest. But we won the semi with 1 player and his PA. Odd.

indiana · Tennis legend

I've been a bit mixed on the team issue, so I had been thinking about it, although for starters I certainly think Jamie deserves big credit so he does need named and counted. He was very good in the doubles !

Yes, you can make the case that this great Davis Cup run has very largely come from two Dunblane born brothers, whereas the actual lack of depth compared to many countries remains.

However, as I and others have commented, where we perhaps vitally needed an additional singles win against the USA ( would the Murrays have beaten the Bryans if called upon we will never know, but it would have been a toughie ) we got it from James vs Isner.

And there has seemed to be a great backroom team, starting with Leon, which has helped make Andy very happy and willing to play and led to seemingly a great team spirit.

So yes, very Murray focused on court, particularly with Andy, but still a real team.

steven · Tennis legend

Bob - the deadline is 28 Sep

It sounds like it's going to be Flanders Expo in Ghent (indoor, enough capacity) but the main hall there is currently booked for that weekend so they may have some negotiation to do. Antwerp has been mentioned as an alternative. The Belgians like to move their home ties around a lot, judging by where their past ties have been played.

Paul - I don't think we can catch the top two without winning the Final (though we should be be the top seed in next year's World Group anyway, as the higher-ranked finalist), but I think we could go 3rd or 4th in the rankings tomorrow (we should go above 15000 points, I haven't worked out any of the other nations' scores) - having been 44th at the end of 2010, that's quite an improvement!

Ratty - true, and I've always thought it's a bit sad that one player and another half of a doubles team can effectively win a tie but we wouldn't have got to the SFs in the first place without lots of other live rubber wins since the start of Leon's reign.

4 Brits have won 25 *live* singles rubbers in the run from G2 under Leon:

14 Andy Murray
7 James Ward
3 Dan Evans
1 Jamie Baker

... and 6 Brits have won 11 doubles rubbers (which are always live) in that time:

8 Colin Fleming
5 Andy Murray
4 Jamie Murray
3 Ross Hutchins
1 Ken Skupski
1 Jonny Marray

Btw, they were apparently going to hold the Final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff if it had been against Argentina - that would have gone down like a lead balloon with the Scots and the English, I guess wink , but maybe the only large venue they could still have secured for that weekend.

-- Edited by steven on Sunday 20th of September 2015 09:55:55 PM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

An opportunity missed for Milts then