I agree, I don't think Josh would be fazed by playing a live singles rubber, it's the sort of thing which would really spur him on to play even better. I'd pick him to beat Stakhovsky on current form. It's interesting the Ukraine have picked indoor clay as none of their players particularly like it, Stakhovsky has played just 1 clay tournament all year. I think Jamie Baker would also raise his game and would relish the challenge of playing DC, but at this moment in time I think Josh is playing better though of course I'd be extremely pleased if Jamie was picked

I wouldn't pick Auckland and Jamie Murray for the doubles though, ok they're our top 2 doubles players but they've never played together before. We've got 4 quality doubles teams and GB might aswell select one of them [eg: Auckland and Delgado or Fleming and Murray]. How well a doubles pair gell together is often a crucial factor more than the quality of the individual players, for example in the April tie - Murray and Rusedski were the better tennis players on paper but they got beaten by Bozo and Zimonjic because they were the better team and had a lot of experience of playing together.

lloyd is running out of players it seems, no alex, no josh, no tim. greg wants to play but can he handle clay 5 setters? lets hope andy doesnt get injured.

from bbc

 

Goodall turns down Davis Cup role







Goodall played in the main draw of the US Open for the first timeJosh Goodall has decided against being a reserve in Great Britain's Davis Cup team to face Ukraine next month.

The Briton, who lost to Paul-Henri Mathieu at the US Open on Wednesday, will instead play challenger events.

"My coach Martin Bohm told me that John Lloyd only saw me as the sixth player in the team because the match will be on clay," Goodall told the LTA website.

"Playing the challengers, trying to get more ranking points, will be far more beneficial to my career."

The 20-year-old, ranked eighth in Britain, went down 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-3 to Mathieu at Flushing Meadows having come through three rounds of qualifying.

"It was certainly a learning experience and now I know where I have got to work," said Goodall.

He will now head to challenger events in New Orleans, Tulsa and Lubbock.

Britain take on Ukraine at the Odessa Lawn Tennis Club from 22-24 September in a Euro-Africa Zone Group relegation play-off.

 

 

 

  

I think this is a shocking decision from Lloyd

After the big 3, Josh is our most in-form player at the moment and his achievements over the last 3 months have been sensational, for me he was a cert for a DC place. It's difficult to see what more he could have done to have earnt one.

Josh's game isn't just suited to fast surfaces as Lloyd seems to think. He had some great results in Greece in May on slow outdoor hard courts and he's just qualified for the US Open where the courts are medium-fast.

What kind of message does this send to Josh, he can do this well and still be snubbed ! After all that talk about promoting the younger players, Lloyd is probably going to just play Andy and Greg on all 3 days when he has an ideal opportunity to give some of the lower ranked upcoming players a chance. I hope Josh goes ahead and does really well in those challengers and shows Lloyd how daft he was in not picking him.

Incidentally, newspaper articles after the USO seemed to suggest that Greg may only be fit enough for the doubles rubber, so it'd be interesting to see who would play the 2nd singles rubber if that happened.

At the moment it looks very much like it's going to be: Andy, Greg, Auckland, Baker or Mackin.

There was a very interesting article on the DC in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday. Unsurprisingly, Josh is very annoyed at not being picked in the team. He said sarcastically "Even if I'd won the US Open I wouldn't have been picked."

On hearing this, Lloyd retorted "I'm puzzled why he said that because I spoke to his coach and it was agreed that he would be better off playing some challengers and improving his ranking. I'm not going to stick him in a match like this." Lloyd did then stress that Josh would figure largely in his plans next year when he wants to put the accent more on youth.

However, all the newspapers have been saying that Rusedski's injury is likely to prevent him from playing anything other than the doubles rubber so Lloyd is going to have to rely on youth for this tie. What I want to know is, if that is the case, why has Lloyd ruled out our most in-form player for the last two months especially as he's desperate to play. I'm not surprised that Josh is frustrated.

According to the Telegraph, Jamie Baker, Jamie Delgado and Alan Mackin look like they are the 3 who will be selected alongside Murray and Rusedski [which explains Mackin's withdrawal from Doneskt and Baker not entering any challengers in September.] They will have 5 days practise on clay in Vienna before heading to the Ukraine.

-- Edited by UltimateFlemingFan at 10:44, 2006-09-04

no real suprises there once we knew josh was misssing, who will play the doubles? will greg only play that as suggested? and have alan or baker in the 2nd singles, otherwise who would play the doubles no one there jumps out as a doubles player?

the average age of the squad (inc jamie d) is 25 so not really all that young i'd say.

further thoughts:

am not impressed at all, all that stuff about a few loses upfront not to bad a price to build a team, then this, the only diffrence really is he has swapped alex for jamie baker. and greg comes back in for jamie d.

the fact is the team should have been andy, josh, jamie b & auckland with murray j or flemming as 5th. thats a proper team for the future.

its always easy to say the words in the run up but then lloyd was as the sharp end he bottled it. his only big decision was to drop alex, and i think that was probably alexs decision too.   

like jeremy, lloyd has started off with an easy tie to win, and a player who can probably win the tie for us single handley in andy (jermey had tim v luxemburg). but the fact is this already isnt encourging at all. why pick mackin over big arv's? mackin last match  was a loss to the big man himself!! and to be honest a win over an isreali part timer and a hammering against the fed doesnt show he can handle DC pressure.  

-- Edited by Count Zero at 18:05, 2006-09-04

Woohoo !!! Jamie Baker in the DC team

that Greg isn't fit enough to play singles and the BBC don't put it on interactive so I can watch Jamie in action !

Jamie will be absolutely thrilled, he was so gutted at missing out on the Serbia and Israel ties after being the 5th man against Switzerland last year. He's been really wanting to get into the 4-man squad for ages. Now he has his chance.

It looks like it's going to have to be Andy and Greg in the doubles as neither Baker o Mackin are doubles players - they haven't played doubs in tournaments for ages.

However, apart from Jamie Baker's selection, like Count Zero I'm not overly happy with the team and think it should have been andy, josh, jamie b and auckland with either j murray, fleming, hutchins, delgado as the 5th player. What's the point of picking a 33 year old, half-fit Rusedski struggling with injury especially when he's only going to be able to play doubles at most. Also, he and Andy haven't particularly combined well in doubles in their previous matches and clay will put even more strain on his hip. This was the ideal opportunity to give one of our emerging doubles pairs a chance and we've got plenty to choose from.

Why on earth does Alan Mackin get picked every time for a clay tie. Like Bates before him, Lloyd is again under the mistaken impression that Mackin is a clay-court specialist. Looking at his results, they would suggest that clay is Mackin's worst surface, he's best on fast courts like indoor hard and grass. I wouldn't have picked Big Arvs though Count, apart from Manchester he hasn't really done well recently, clay's his worst surface, it's dc and he's approaching veteran status.

I reckon that the only real competitive match in this tie will be Baker v Stakhovsky on day 1, here's hoping that Jamie can make light of the rankings gap and rise to the occasion.