The Davis Cup World Group semifinal between Great Britain and Australia will begin on Friday on the indoor hard courts of Glasgow. Andy Murray is opening against Thanasi Kokkinakis before Dan Evans faces Bernard Tomic.
Andy Murray (GBR) vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS)
Two good friends and frequent training partners will go head-to-head for the first time when Murray and Kokkinakis kick off the Great Britain vs. Australia Davis Cup semifinal tie on Friday in Glasgow. Both players are looking to bounce back from relatively disappointing U.S. Open campaigns. Murray had been in outstanding form with a title in Montreal and a semifinal showing in Cincinnati. Expected to go up against Roger Federer in a semifinal showdown at Flushing Meadows, the third-ranked Scot instead lost to Kevin Anderson in a fourth-round upset. Still, Murray is a stellar 59-10 on the season and a perfect 4-0 in Davis Cup singles rubbers.
Kokkinakis got dragged into the Nick Kyrgios-Stan Warinka controversy during the Montreal Masters, but he did not let it affect him in Cincinnati. The world No. 72 qualified for the main draw there and ousted Fabio Fognini before succumbing to Richard Gasquet. Kokkinakis also went up against Gasquet in the U.S. Open first round and pushed the Frenchman to five sets before retiring with cramps. The 19-year-old is 1-1 in Davis Cup this year; he came back from two sets down to beat Lukas Rosol on the road in the Czech Republic but lost during quarterfinal action at home to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin. An away date with Murray will obviously be Kokkinakis’ toughest Davis Cup test yet.
Pick: Murray in 3 with at least 1 tiebreaker
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Dan Evans (GBR) vs. Bernard Tomic (AUS)
The Australia Davis Cup team has played some musical chairs in recent seasons, and Tomic has beena a big reason for the ongoing uncertainty due to both inconsistent play on the court and questionable behavior off it. Almost the same can be said for Kyrgios. It was Kyrgios who got the call for the Davis Cup quarterfinals against Kazakhstan, but now Tomic is on the squad while Kyrgios is absent. The 22-year-old is in strong enough form, up to a career-high ranking of 23rd in the world. He outlasted Australian teammate Lleyton Hewitt’s U.S. Open career after a five-set thriller then lost to Gasquet in the third round.
Evans is 1-0 lifetime against Tomic, having prevailed 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3 at the 2013 U.S. Open. But the 25-year-old has since disappeared from the main tour. In fact, he has not won an ATP-level match since Queen’s Club in 2014 and he has not even played in an ATP tournament this season. Registering at exactly 300th in the world, Evans has been grinding away on the Futures and Challenger circuits and has three Futures titles to his credit this year. Although he is finally playing with some confidence again, this is a substantial step up in competition for Evans.
Pick: Tomic in 4
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pp3akynXLgI
That is a link to highlights of nadal and torpegaard on YouTube. You can tell Rafa wasn’t totally feeling it, but that guy played out of his mind for a guy outside the top 900.
I mean that’s the video.
Oh sorry he is in top 900 at 822 right now.
Wait wrong once again lol he is ranked 822 in doubles and 909 in singles sorry bout that that is last correction (I think) ?
I am so out of the loop that I forgot about Davis Cup. I didn’t check the tennis channel today, having been out all afternoon. I will have to see if they are televising any of it. So Rafa played today. From reading the comments, it seems that he was having his problems with this guy, whoever he is.
I will try to check out the video link. Thanks Benny!
No problem and they will be playing Davis cup at 3 am est time I think that’s 6 am or 7 am pacific. They will be playing it live for most of the day I think. That will be doubles but it still should be exciting with fed and Stan in action and The Brit vs Aussie doubles clash that should be epic.
Benny: Missed Rafa’s match. Was sur le route from Paris so your video link provided the opportunity to see where Rafa is at. Given the autumn hard court season has never been his favourite time of the year, I thought he stood up to the barrage from the Swede pretty well. Not going deep in most of his recent tournaments could be a blessing in disguise.
Shireling:. Liked the rapport he had with Conchita during the changeovers.
#CautiouslyOptimistic
ed251137 (at 6:55 am),
Rafa plays in Denmark, not in Sweden.
Don’t be so pedantic Gussie. They’re both in Scandinavia so I was in the right part of the world ?
Beside all the men are blond!!
Verdasco and RBA are still listed to play the doubles. The match starts at 15.00hrs (BST) so guess we won’t know until the last moment if Conchita will make any substitutions..
I’m wrong. The Danes are not all blond. Both their doubles players are dark haired!
People are saying Rafa was not feeling it. Fed also won with same score against a virtual unknown entity.
Is Rafa playing in the doubles?
nadline10 says (at 10:34 am)
Yep!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPQvETBWUAEJM5r.png
Classic. The Davis Cup site have still not updated the information on their site.
Thanks, Augusta.
i didn’t get that impression at all. It took a while for Rafa to find his ‘sea legs’ true besides we all know indoor hard courts are his least favourite surface at the best of times.
One of the intriguing things is the way DC
a) gives virtually unknown players who normally languish in Futures and Challengers a taste of the big stage and
b) they frequently play heroically for their country when thrust into the limelight but subsequently sink back into obscurity.
Rafa said after his match on Friday:
https://twitter.com/PauFerragut/status/644907974868226052
Rafa said after his match on Friday:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPQuCnzU8AEa0YM.png
Andy (in place of Hublot) to play doubles with his brother Jamie against Hewitt and Groth.
A must win rubber for the Brits.
correction: in place of Inglot not Hublot
I’m getting nervous. The lack of the two Murrays doubles matches together is starting to show. Much better co-ordination between the Aussies at the moment.
Seems it’s Nadal & Verdasco in the doubles. Still no scorecard.
The Murrays are on their way to losing the third set which means a 5-setter if they are to have any hope. Not looking at all promising atm. Think I’ll switch over to the Nadal/Verdasco doubles.
Amazing recovery by Andy and Jamie to edge the win in five sets.
Spain (Rafa & Nando) won the 1st set 6-4.
Nice vamos rafando!! Lol
Go Aussies!! Hewitt is such a boss. I hope Australia wins the Davis Cup to be honest.
Shame on you Benny ?
I could have done without so much tension. Brilliant match.
Yeah I mean if Murray wins Davis cup which will probably happen now I will be happy then too. I just wanted Hewitt to have one last epic win before retiring at Australian Open next year.
Yeah that was a great match. Lots of drama throughout. The Murray bros just were able to get it done in the end. I feel like Groth was very tight throughout that final set and the murrays could probably sense that.
Benny (I assume Someone is you!!) Andy played his part once he got used to playing doubles but Jamie was inspired in the closing stages of the match. And I agree Groth buckled in the final set. I couldn’t believe how well dear old Hewitt played. Part of me wanted to see him pull off one great last DC win but in the end patriotism won out. Lovely exchange between the four men at the net wasn’t it.
Rafa & Nando won the 3rd set and they lead 2:1 in the match.
Rafa & Nando won their doubles match and Spain won its tie against Denmark.
Vamos España!
http://www.emoticonland.net/smileys/sports/sp234.gif
Spain wins the tie 3:0.
Switzerland lost their doubles match in five sets.
Wow de Bakker and middelkoop must’ve played well even though they were facing roger and chiudinelli instead of Stan probably because Stan had long match and needed rest for tomorrow. Let’s go Switzerland!!
Vamos Spain, and tomorrow for the Eurobasket!
Shireling ( at 8:22 pm),
Rafa will be there (his friend Pau Gasol is a member of Spain’s team):
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPUmIEnWsAA2nNx.png
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPVRir3XAAACqPD.png
Lol I was the anonymous with the last two comments just using different phone and forgot to save my info and stuff on there lol
Haha did different email there too so there is a different profile picture lol
It’s nice to know that Rafa and Nando won. I checked out the tennis channel, but they are not showing Spain. They are showing the Brits, though. I am going to keep checking because there is a lot of coverage listed with no specific countries. I am hoping that they will at least replay Rafa.
I should have watched the Murray brothers. That one sounded like a good one.
NNY: I would be surprised if Spain v Denmark matches will be featured in the US. It’s a relegation match which is unlikely to qualify for airtime in competition with so many other sports at this time of the year. I have a subscription to the Davis Cup live tennis site so can access all the DC matches around the world. Disproportionately costly though for four weekends in the year. Being a tennis addict gets expensive, no? 🙁
I only caught a few snatches of Rafa and Nando. Too busy watching GB and Australia. Rafa was not having an easy time of it and looked pretty tense. I got the impression he was carrying Verdasco but it was probably the right decision to pair him up with Nando rather than RBA who I don’t recall have ever played doubles together.
NNY: I’ve just remembered the ITF Davis Cup streams are not available in the USA.
I only subscribe to ITF Live on a daily basis, i.e. when Rafa is playing. Sad, I know. Most of the matches are on SKY or Eurosport anyway, especially the GB matches.
Your words, not mine 🙂
I only get free-to-air channels with my subscription to English TV and I cancelled the French TV Sports channels in favour of Eurosport Player.
Tomic is playing well don’t you think. Just hope Andy keeps the pressure on. He has a bad habit of going off the boil sometimes in second sets and yesterday’s doubles took a lot out of him.
ed251137 ( at 11:40 am),
Only Davis Cup ties being played in the USA are not available to viewers in the USA.
Gussie: that’s not how I interprete this wording on the Davis Cup live stream site:
Start time:
Day 1: 13:55 (12:55 BST) TENNIS: Denmark v Spain
Starting at 12:00 GMT
Frederik NIELSEN v Rafael NADAL
Followed by
Mikael TORPEGAARD v David FERRER
Not available in Brazil, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Australia and USA
ed251137 (at 3:51 pm),
I read this:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPW-l3oUsAEslUV.png
???? Head scratch
ed,
Yes, you are correct. I realized that yesterday. Spain’s is a relegation match as opposed to the other Davis Cup matches. They were showing the U.S. DC matches along with Great Britain.
I woke up today in time to see the very end of Murray/Tomic! I am sure it will replayed later on. But it was so nice to see the Brits get this win! Yay for them! Also, I am happy for Andy after the disappointment at the USO. This has to be so satisfying for him.
At least I get to see some of them. 🙂