Matters of National Importance

We talked a bit about Davis Cup the other day - so let's talk about Fed Cup. Isn't it incredible that a country can have its top three players be unavailable and STILL be the favourites to win? I'm talking Russia against Spain. Sharapova's out injured, Safina and Dementieva are absolutely exhausted, and still the Russians have got a great team. Svetlana Kuznetsova is their big gun, and they're also playing Vera Zvonareva, Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova. And there's even more depth if they wanted it: Nadia Petrova, Anna Chakvetadze, Alisa Kleybanova, Alla Kudryavtseva, and even the rookie Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who has a couple of junior Slams under her belt. Isn't that incredible, how one country can have so many options?

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I wonder what would happen if our top three women dropped out for Fed Cup. At the moment, that's Casey Dellacqua, Sam Stosur and Alicia Molik - now she's retired, that'd bump up the next player, which would be Jessica Moore. So even if Jess Moore played, that means our Fed Cup team would consist of her, Jelena Dokic, Monique Adamczak and Sophie Ferguson. Next player down is Christina Wheeler. I'd play the young guns instead - Isabella Holland and Sally Peers and co. Somehow, I think we would get our collective arse kicked, but at least we'd be doing something different.

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Pretty much like in Davis Cup, actually.

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There was a nice article on the Tennis Australia website the other day about Sam Groth, who is one of those rookies playing on the Davis Cup team I'd never heard of. Apparently he had his first ever ATP win in July in Nottingham over Jamie Baker. Slightly more impressive, I thought, was the fact that he beat Janko Tipsarevic in qualifying. So he is capable of playing above his rank, it seems... not that it looks like it'll help much. I'd guess the only chance he'll get to play singles is in a dead rubber. John Fitzgerald would be a fool not to play Guccione and Luczak in the first rubbers. I'm guessing Chile will play Gonzalez and Massu... Luczak is a good claycourter and he did beat Stan Wawrinka that time in Davis Cup and Guccione has that monster serve, so there's some small possibility we might win a rubber or two... but I wouldn't bet on much.

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Look at me. I pretend to be all unconcerned about nationality in tennis, and here I am agonising over Davis Cup and Fed Cup. Oh well. I suppose they are a bit special.

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Today's Results

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BCR Open Romania (Bucharest)

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Richard Gasquet def. Teimuraz Gabashvili, 6-7 (6-8) 6-1 6-1

Gilles Simon def. Florent Serra, 6-2 6-3

Carlos Moya def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 5-7 6-3 6-4

Jose Acasuso def. Ivan Navarro, 6-4 6-4

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Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic (Bali)

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Daniela Hantuchova def. Chan Yung-Jan, 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-2

Patty Schnyder def. Marta Domachowska, 6-2 6-2

Tamira Paszek def. Flavia Pennetta, 4-6 6-0 6-2

Nadia Petrova def. Francesca Schiavone, 6-4 6-3