The United States Davis Cup squad, who are set to do battle starting on Friday against host Spain in the World Group semifinals, received some hearting breaking news this week that might hurt their chances of defending their title.James Blake informed Captain Patrick McEnroe that he would not be traveling to Madrid due to physical and mental exhaustion from a long summer of tournament play. Bob Bryan (pictured), an important key to the United States doubles matches throughout the recent years, also decided not to travel to Madrid since he recently has been sidelined due to an aggravated shoulder injury.
“I aggravated it pretty bad at the Open and only made things worse,” said the left-handed doubles specialist. “I knew if I wanted a chance to play the rest of this year, I had to shut it down now. I can't even hit any balls.”
Sam Querrey will fill in for Blake at the No. 2 singles position, which will mark his first Davis Cup appearance. US Open quarterfinalist and soon to be married Mardy Fish will take over for the injured Bob Bryan.
Throughout their impressive Davis Cup career, the Bryan twins have put together an amazing 14-2 record, including a straight sets win over Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko of Russia to seal the 2007 Davis Cup title for the United States.
Mike Bryan has never played a Davis Cup match without brother Bob and hasn’t played with a different partner besides his brother since the 2002 Long Island event, a tournament he won with India’s Mahesh Bhupathi. The Bryan twins have won 49 titles together, including the recently completed US Open.
Davis Cup veteran Andy Roddick, who is currently ranked No. 8 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, will lead the American team on the red clay in Spain. Emilio Sanchez will captain the Spanish team, while World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and No. 6 David Ferrer will lead the way for the Spaniards in singles, with Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez playing the doubles rubber.
Posts
1 comment:
bad luck for USA but if it had to happen at some point it's better now i guess because they would probably don't have a chance to win anyway.
Post a Comment