2014 Davis Cup

[GameSetAndMath]

Stan played a clean match (even though he lost the tie breaker in the first set)
considering the do or die situation. He did not give even a break point chance to
Mikhail throughout the match. Also, Stan served well. He had 25 Aces, 94% of
first serve points won and 60% of second serve points won. Also he hit 65 winners
in the match. I am posting the stat below.


Match Duration: 3:09 WAW KUK
Aces 25 6
Double Faults 3 7
Service Winners 3 4
1st Serve 63/110 (57%) 85/152 (56%)
1st Serve Points Won 59/63 (94%) 57/85 (67%)
2nd Serve 44/47 (94%) 60/67 (90%)
2nd Serve Points Won 28/44 (60%) 38/60 (57%)
Receiving Points Won 57/152 (38%) 23/110 (21%)
Break Points 3/10 (30%) 0/0 (0%)
Return of Serve Winners 6 0
Total Winners 65 22
Forehand Winners 23 11
Backhand Winners 12 1
Forced Errors 35 23
Unforced Errors 61 56
Net Points Won 19/25 4/9
Total Points Won 144

 

[GameSetAndMath]

The Kazaks have won the tie-breaker in the 4th set and hence the match too.

Now, there is no room for error for Swiss.

They have to win both matches tomorrow or else they can forget the DC altogether.

To add to the pressure, Stan will play first. He will play against Mikhail Kukushkin.

If he wins, Fed will get a chance to play against Gouleb next.

They put themselves in unnecessarily tight position now.

p.s. Incidentally if Czechs win DC this year again, that would be a record. No country
has apparently won the DC for three years in a row. Czechs have won their tie
against Japan with an easy 3-0 victory. Berdych's services are likely to be
available for Czechs in the two future ties of this year (especially if the
ties are to be held in Europe, which is certainly the case for SF).

Not true. The USA won it 5 years in a row from 1968-1972 with Davis Cup stalwarts such as Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Bob Lutz, Cliff Richey. And there were many four time winners before that. I think the US won it 7 or 8 times in a row in the 1920's with "Big" Bill Tilden and "Little" Bill Johnston, and following that, France ended the American's dominance winning 6 times in a row with the Four Musketeers - Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet, René Lacoste and Jean Borotra.

But not since 1972 has anyone won more than twice in a row, though the USA did win 4 out of 5 between 1978-1982 with John McEnroe and company, their only loss in 1980 to Czechoslavkia with Lendl as the anchor.

I know many would not know it now, but for many many years, there were great players from the USA.

Respectfully,
masterclass

Masterclass, I looked it up. Under the current format of DC, no country has won
DC 3 times in a row. By current format, I mean the way it is run in four rounds
starting with world group of 16 countries.

Before that time, the defending champion was just playing one tie where the
opponent was determined by a long drawn process. Obviously, under this system
it is easy for a country to rack off a sequence of titles as they have to play only
one tie in the successive years. The format change happened in 1972. No
wonder that you see the same country winning a bunch in a row until then.

Here is a history page of DC.

http://www.daviscup.com/en/organisation/davis-cup-history.aspx

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvXhrB5PqPw[/video]

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

^^it still counts as winning the davis cup though, even if way back in the old days of pre-war era the winners always played next years final. you cannot refuse to include winners from 1900-1970ish just because the davis cup wasn't set up the same as nowadays..

unless you want to say "open-era davis cup" then everyone knows you mean since the late 1960s.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

oh well, the perky gerbil faced optimism of yesterday soon was squashed in the dirt of old naples for the british team..:huh: still its our best effort since reaching the final v usa in McEnroe era of early 80s I think..

we start next year avoiding world group play off :idea:..the reality is its v much reliant on andy murray, until kyle Edmund can hopefully get himself enmeshed in the top 120 or so where he can play qualifiers to atp events/majors n play tougher tennis.

andy did well but he played on each day, the fog first singles match was first Friday whereas murray played late fri/sat, puking up last week wasn't ideal either. (murray will still do things on clay this year though), so far he is 3-1 on it.

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMrI7FuRIkg[/video]

 

[Ilovetennis2]

Thank you for the upload. It's so nice to see Federer react to a win like that when it's not a Grand Slam match.

 

[masterclass]

The Kazaks have won the tie-breaker in the 4th set and hence the match too.

Now, there is no room for error for Swiss.

They have to win both matches tomorrow or else they can forget the DC altogether.

To add to the pressure, Stan will play first. He will play against Mikhail Kukushkin.

If he wins, Fed will get a chance to play against Gouleb next.

They put themselves in unnecessarily tight position now.

p.s. Incidentally if Czechs win DC this year again, that would be a record. No country
has apparently won the DC for three years in a row. Czechs have won their tie
against Japan with an easy 3-0 victory. Berdych's services are likely to be
available for Czechs in the two future ties of this year (especially if the
ties are to be held in Europe, which is certainly the case for SF).

Not true. The USA won it 5 years in a row from 1968-1972 with Davis Cup stalwarts such as Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Bob Lutz, Cliff Richey. And there were many four time winners before that. I think the US won it 7 or 8 times in a row in the 1920's with "Big" Bill Tilden and "Little" Bill Johnston, and following that, France ended the American's dominance winning 6 times in a row with the Four Musketeers - Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet, René Lacoste and Jean Borotra.

But not since 1972 has anyone won more than twice in a row, though the USA did win 4 out of 5 between 1978-1982 with John McEnroe and company, their only loss in 1980 to Czechoslavkia with Lendl as the anchor.

I know many would not know it now, but for many many years, there were great players from the USA.

Respectfully,
masterclass

Masterclass, I looked it up. Under the current format of DC, no country has won
DC 3 times in a row. By current format, I mean the way it is run in four rounds
starting with world group of 16 countries.

Before that time, the defending champion was just playing one tie where the
opponent was determined by a long drawn process. Obviously, under this system
it is easy for a country to rack off a sequence of titles as they have to play only
one tie in the successive years. The format change happened in 1972. No
wonder that you see the same country winning a bunch in a row until then.

Here is a history page of DC.

http://www.daviscup.com/en/organisation/davis-cup-history.aspx

Yes, very true. So the best statement is that no country has won more than 2 consecutive Davis Cup titles since 1972 when the challenge round format was eliminated. But I also don't think we can simply eliminate, or should ignore 70 years of history of the event because of the format change. It was what it was, even 4 years into the Open Era, and everyone played under the same rules.

So starting in 1973, the USA leads with 8 wins, Sweden 7, Australia 6, Spain 5.

Of the 4 teams remaining in the competion in 2014, Czech Republic (inc. Czechoslavkia) and France each have had 3 victories since 1973, Adriano Panatta's Italy won in 1976, and Switzerland is still looking for its first Davis Cup ever.

Respectfully,
masterclass

 

[the AntiPusher]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMrI7FuRIkg[/video]

Fed gets excited after beating this no name team.. My question is where was Borat:lolz: Who does the Swiss play next, a team from Jamica or Cuba?

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

uk last won the davis cup in 1936..same year fred perry won his last major.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

I did not mean to say that the DC titles before 1972 are meaningless. They certainly
are of value too.

However, in masterclass's post, although he mentioned that no country has won
more than twice in a row since 1972, he forgot to mention the format change that
happened which was the reason for the sudden decrease in a string of DC titles by
the same country.

p.s. I am not necessarily accusing him of "conveniently" omitting it. Perhaps, he
was not aware of the format change that happened at that year.

 

[Fiero425]

I did not mean to say that the DC titles before 1972 are meaningless. They certainly
are of value too.

However, in masterclass's post, although he mentioned that no country has won
more than twice in a row since 1972, he forgot to mention the format change that
happened which was the reason for the sudden decrease in a string of DC titles by
the same country.

p.s. I am not necessarily accusing him of "conveniently" omitting it. Perhaps, he
was not aware of the format change that happened at that year.

Way back when, I don't think you had the upsets that became more probable when tennis "blew up" in the 70's! A lot of the time, I'm sure it was a formality; each tie leading to the final! It got tougher with world class players like Borg, Vilas, Orantes, Fillol, and many others who were superior on clay! That's when we started losing ties to South American and European teams for instance 'OTTOMH!'

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjeDqbqewyk[/video]

 

[Front242]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMrI7FuRIkg[/video]

Fed gets excited after beating this no name team.. My question is where was Borat:lolz: Who does the Swiss play next, a team from Jamica or Cuba?

The no name guy he beat was playing extremely well all week and if he played like he did this week Rafa would've lost in the 1st round of the US Open 2011 when he played him as he was behind at times in every set to Golubev. Rafa himself said he was very lucky, referring to Golubev choking while ahead and giving breaks back right away. This week against Stan and in the doubles he didn't. He's a dangerous aggressive player and his low ranking is deceptive.

Edited 'cos it was actually a first round match, not 2nd round and he was lucky to get through it. Straight sets Rafa fans will say but if people watched it they'll know how well Golubev played and he was even better in Davis Cup last week. Definitely not a nobody. Btw, Golubev was up 5-2 in the 2nd set of the US Open 1st round match against Nadal and he was 2 breaks ahead in set 3 also so clearly the no name guy is pretty good and Fed was dead right to celebrate beating a guy playing great all week. He's playing much better this week than he did against Nadal too. No huge leads surrendered.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-2032036/US-Open-2011-Shaky-Nadal-survives-Golubev-scare.html

 

[Fiero425]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMrI7FuRIkg[/video]

Fed gets excited after beating this no name team.. My question is where was Borat:lolz: Who does the Swiss play next, a team from Jamica or Cuba?

The no name guy he beat was playing extremely well all week and if he played like he did this week Rafa would've lost in the 2nd round of the US Open 2011 when he played him as he was behind at times in every set to Golubev. Rafa himself said he was very lucky, referring to Golubev choking while ahead and giving breaks back right away. This week against Stan and in the doubles he didn't. He's a dangerous aggressive player and his low ranking is deceptive.

...esp. in Davis Cup where rankings mean little if anything! On paper, Switzerland shouldn't lose having the #3 & #4 players in the world competing for them! Those players were also on a winning streak; Stan in Australia and Roger in Dubai! Both had wins over higher ranked players; Stan over Nadal and Djokovic and Roger taking out Nole a couple weeks before! They were lucky to survive against those "no names!" :nono :angel: Look at the US going down to England of all countries! I don't think they've advanced past the first round in the world group in over 30 years when the Lloyd brothers were still around! How much further must be fall? :nono :snigger :angel:

 

[the AntiPusher]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMrI7FuRIkg[/video]

Fed gets excited after beating this no name team.. My question is where was Borat:lolz: Who does the Swiss play next, a team from Jamica or Cuba?

The no name guy he beat was playing extremely well all week and if he played like he did this week Rafa would've lost in the 1st round of the US Open 2011 when he played him as he was behind at times in every set to Golubev. Rafa himself said he was very lucky, referring to Golubev choking while ahead and giving breaks back right away. This week against Stan and in the doubles he didn't. He's a dangerous aggressive player and his low ranking is deceptive.

Edited 'cos it was actually a first round match, not 2nd round and he was lucky to get through it. Straight sets Rafa fans will say but if people watched it they'll know how well Golubev played and he was even better in Davis Cup last week. Definitely not a nobody. Btw, Golubev was up 5-2 in the 2nd set of the US Open 1st round match against Nadal and he was 2 breaks ahead in set 3 also so clearly the no name guy is pretty good and Fed was dead right to celebrate beating a guy playing great all week. He's playing much better this week than he did against Nadal too. No huge leads surrendered.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-2032036/US-Open-2011-Shaky-Nadal-survives-Golubev-scare.html

interesting

 

[tented]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMrI7FuRIkg[/video]

Fed gets excited after beating this no name team.. My question is where was Borat:lolz: Who does the Swiss play next, a team from Jamica or Cuba?

:laydownlaughing You're confusing Davis Cup with bobsledding.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

See this article by Bodo. I normally disagree with him. But, in this article,
I completely agree with him. DC does not need a reform. It is great as is.

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2014/04/cup-sense/51136/

 

[GameSetAndMath]

It is time for a bump to this thread.

This weekend we have two semifinals.

1. Switzerland vs. Italy played at Geneva on hard courts
featuring Roger, Stan, Fog and Seppi

2. France vs. Czech played at Rolland Garros on clay
featuring Monfils, Tsonga, Berdych, Worm and Rosol.

I expect the Swiss folks to win fairly easily (in 3 or at most 4 matches) without
much drama unlike the last time. The second semi will be more tight. However, with
both Monfils and Tsonga in good form at the moment and this being a home event
for them, I expect France to win this one.

Apart from the semis, there are also 8 playoffs for berth in the international
group. More on that later.

 

[isabelle]

Maybe France have a decent opportunity to reach final this time ??? I hope la Monf and Tsonga'll play their best tennis