Canada to host Spain in the first round of 2013 Davis Cup – Tennis News
Canada will host the five time former champion, Spain, in the first round of the Davis Cup World Group next year. The tie will be organized on the synthetic hard courts of Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre in UBC,
Vancouver from February 1 to 3.
It was announced by Tennis Canada on Monday that the biggest team event in tennis will return to the city, where it faced France in the first round of this year’s competition.
Canada retained its place in the World Group, after thrashing South Africa 4-1 in the playoff tie held in September. The American country was beaten by France 1-4 in the first round.
Luck favoured the Canadians as they got the chance of playing at home after a coin toss. Talking to the reporters during the press conference, Canadian team captain, Martin Laurendeau, said, “For us, the important thing is to play
at home. It’s not fun to play away. It’s always more complicated, so we’re just relieved, really, to play indoor tennis against a team we feel we can take on, for sure.”
It’s not easy to win against a good team in a home away tie and it was proved when Spain lost to Czech Republic in this year’s Davis Cup final. Although, Spanish players were ranked higher than their Czech counterparts but the
clay specialists could not give the same performance on the fast indoor hard courts in Prague.
Laurendeau added, “We were trying to qualify for the World Group for so many years, over eight years in South America and Mexico, and a lot of difficult destinations and difficult teams to play. But we feel we belong in the World
Group. It’s not a coincidence that we’re there two years in a row. Eventually, we have to play a seeded nation.”
Nadal is expected to be back in the team when Spain travels to Canada for the first round tie in February. Even if he is not there, Spaniards are too good for the Canadians and the latter will have to put up a brilliant show to
topple the former.
Canada, which is at the 12th position in Davis Cup rankings, would be led by the world number 13, Milos Raonic. Vasek Pospisil is expected to take part in the tie as the second singles specialist. Daniel Nestor would
fill one doubles spot and the second one would be finalised on seeing the performance of players at that time.
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