Davis Cup Competition: A challenging match ahead
Croatia and Serbia will face each other on the very first occasion in Davis Cup Championship this weekend in what is definitely going to be a moving quarterfinal game between the ex Yugoslav republics.
Croatia who is also a Davis Cup winner back in 2005, will host the best of five series in Split. Serbia has triumphed only once in the Davis Cup championship away from home since 2007, when it started contesting as an independent country.
In the other quarterfinals beginning from Friday, two times champion Spain will meet France in Clermont-Ferrand while Russia will host Argentina in Moscow and Czech Republic, the runner up of last year will the play Chile in Coquimbo.
About 1,000 spectators are expected from Serbia, ''and tight protection will be provided for that,'' told the spokes man of the Interior Ministry of Croatian
He informed that the security personnel’s were ''alert'' for the championship at the ten thousand seats Spaladium Arena.
Novak Djokovic, who has climbed up to number two in the world ATP rankings since contesting in the grass court Grand Slam semi-finals, heads a powerful Serbian team that features Viktor Troicki, top listed doubles tennis ace, Nenad Zimonjic as well as Janko Tipsarevic.
Serbia knocked down the United States in the round number one in Belgrade back in March, it is his very first victory in the World Group.
''Croatia has been luckier than United States in the Davis Cup competition,'' Djokovic commented this week. ''But we have a strong team that can get definitely qualify for the finals''.
The sixteenth ranked Ljubicic will support Marin Cilic, and the two may even team up in Saturday's doubles match.
Wimbledon winner Rafael Nadal drew out of the Davis Cup of Spain in order to get surgery on his knees prior to the United States hard court Tournament. But Spain has a strong team that should be capable enough to tackle a dwindling France in their first Davis Cup competition on an indoor hard court, and first in a period of six years.
Fernando Verdasco, who triumphed in the squeezing point for Spain back in the 2008 final match in Argentina, and David Ferrer, who has succeeded in a total of eight successive singles clashes in Davis Cup competition, will head Spain, which hasn't fell down to France in eighty seven years.
''I believe it is going to be tight,'' Verdasco said. “Every single match is going to be a close call. In Davis Cup competition you can never predict. It is certainly that thing that actually makes this competition so unique''.
The Russian team will be headed by the sixth ranked Nikolay Davydenko this season.
''I haven't contested for three months and have just played a number of matches on grass, which I am not very fond of,'' said Davydenko, who made a comeback recently after his injury. ''So I cannot comment at the how well I am playing. Only future will tell''.
The Czechs will be battling along with, Frantisek Cermak, Ivo Minar, Lukas Dlouhy as well as Jan Hajek versus a Chile nation that lackst its top player, Fernando Gonzalez, who is out due to his knee injury.
Chile, attempting to reach its first ever semi final since 1976, features Paul Capdeville, Jorge Aguilar, Nicolas Massu as well as Cristobal Saavedra Corvalan. They are contesting on exactly the same tennis court on which they defeated Israel back in March.
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