First Round of Davis Cup Features Top Stars
The first round of the 2009 Davis Cup this weekend features a who’s who of the top male tennis players. Rafael Nadal leads Spain against a Serbian team led by Novak Djokovic. France featuring Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Richard Gasquet faces off against the Czech Republic team led by Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych. The United States team of Andy Roddick, James Blake and the Bryan brothers takes on the Swiss team minus its star player, Roger Federer, who is sitting this one out to rest his back. Croatia’s team includes
Marin Cilic, Ivo Karlovic and Mario Ancic against a Chilean team playing without star, Fernando Gonzalez, who is also out with a bad back. Russia, playing without the injured Nikolay Davydenko, still has two-time Grand Slam champion, Marat Safin, Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny on the squad against Romania. Sweden, Israel, Argentina, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria have also fielded strong teams for their ties. It’s impressive that all of the top players are supporting Davis Cup this time around because that has not always been the case. One hopes that the next round of Federation Cup will also feature the top stars in women’s tennis because the event can’t maintain its prestige without them.
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