I doubt that Greg will play, he's got a massive load of points to defend from Indianapolis and Montreal so I expect that he'll be in the States. Could be a big problem for Alex who's defending points from winning the Nottingham ch last year and so he'll be forfeiting a large number of points if he plays the DC tie as I doubt they'd allow him to play the Notts Challenger up to the quarters and then withdraw for the DC. They usually expect the players to take the week off beforehand for training.

I wouldn't be surprised if Alex makes himself unavailable again, which would no doubt draw a few choice comments from the LTA and Tim and Greg on his commitment to the national cause. However, if I was Alex I'd miss the tie and try and defend my points.

If Boggo doesn't play, this would be the team that I'd pick at this point in time [of course this could change if someone really shines during the grass season]: Murray, Lee, Bloomfield and Baker/Auckland. I really hope that they don't pick Parmar again, I know he's the British no 5 but they really need to start giving the younger players a chance.

missing one tournament is not going to have that much of a negative effect on Alex's carreer. If he is needed as one of the two singles players, he should definitely play, and I am sure he will, provided that he form is ok. The LTA still give him significant financial support, so they are allowed to have their say.   He'd be lambasted by everyone if he chose to forgo the DC when we need him.   If Greg and Andy are fit and available, whether he turns up as a reserve is perhaps a slightly different question.

Who do you think our doubles pair should be? 

Re Boggo:

The problem is that one tournament was probably the most significant for Alex of his entire 2005 season. If I was him, I'd want to at least get the chance to defend some of those 60 points. If Alex forfeited those 60 points right now, he'd drop right back down to 164 !

Re the GB doubles pair:

I wouldn't pick Murray and Rusedski for the doubles as they don't seem to gell particularly well as a pair and we'd need to keep one of them fresh for the 3rd day singles.

Murray and Auckland is probably the first choice pair though I'd like to see them play together a few more times in ATP events over the summer.

As you all know, if I was the DC captain I'd pick Colin Fleming and Jamie Murray for the doubles [for obvious reasons !!!]. They have got the potential to become Britain's main doubles pair over the next decade but it would be a brave decision from Bates to pick these two as they haven't had much success at challenger level apart from in Wrexham in jan [where they reached the final]. I think Fleming and Murray's chance will probably come in the spring 2007 tie [barring a stunning set of grass-court wins in the next couple of months] as they will be in or close to the top 100 by then.

James Auckland and Richard Bloomfield have had success in 15K futures doubls this year and they know each other's games very well. I'd like to see Bloomers' good form over the past year rewarded with a DC place. However, picking Auckland/Bloomers for the doubles is an outside possibility.

The other option is Martin Lee and Dave Sherwood who had a lot of success in doubles in Feb and March, beating Fleming and Murray twice. However, this is probably the least likely of Bates' options.


I think that the grass-court season will give us a lot more clues as to which is the best pair for the DC. Fleming and Murray are likely to get doubles wildcards for Surbiton, Queens, Nottingham and Wimbledon so it'll be a good chance for them to prove themselves and step their game up to the next level.

Me, Lucy and Mum!

Hmmmm.

According to http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060301/SPORTS/603010461/1004/SPORTS

Andy is going to be playing at Indianapolis at the time of the Davis Cup . . .