Davis Cup Thread

[ImmzB]

This thread is for Richard's Davis Cup matches.

2011

12/09/2011: Semi Final- Spain vs France (Clay) Richard has been selected!

[civ3]

I don't think he will be selected or play at all. He should concentrate on the indoor hard events coming up.

[ImmzB]

Yeah, I agree I don't think he will be selected. I would rather have him stay in Metz and practice there instead of going to Spain and being the 5th or maybe 6th man.

[kohu]

I don't think he'll be selected at all but could be a chance he'd be the 5th man depending on injury or if Forget isn't focusing on doubles.

Even if he were selected, i'd rather him not play but concentrate on preparing for Metz and the indoor season.

Frankly I think France has very little chance to win, no matter who plays (and especially if Richie were to play). Sorry but he just doesn't think he can beat Nadal or Ferrer which is probably true on clay in Spain and I don't think Monfils or Tsonga could either.

[ImmzB]

Monfils can beat Ferrer on Clay and in best of 5 sets. Monfils or Tsonga won't be able to beat Nadal on Clay and considering it's best of 5 it makes it even tougher.

IMO, it should be Monfils and Tsonga for the Singles and Benny and Llodra for the Doubles. I don't want Richard to be the 5th man so Simon can be it, meaning Richard can stay in Metz!

Metz is a 28 draw meaning Richard will have a BYE into round 2 so if he's not selected he may still travel to practice with the team because he won't have to play his round 2 match until Thursday which is the latest. This means he will return to France on Monday most likely, have a couple of days of practice on the courts and play his R2 match on either Wednesday or Thursday.

It will be interesting to see what Forget does with his selection, does he go with 2 singles players and 2 doubles players or 3 singles players and 1 doubles players meaning 1 of the singles players playing with Llodra in the 3rd rubber.

[ImmzB]

Richard is selected for the DC SF tie vs Spain alongside Monfils, Tsonga and Simon. (Richard is not the 5th man! )

TBH I'm surprised that Llodra is not picked it looks like Gasquet was chosen ahead of him. I really hope Tsonga and Gasquet play together in the doubles!

[kohu]

[ImmzB]

Yeah, it's likely that Llodra will be picked over a singles player which means most likely that Simon or Gasquet will miss out.

I would like to see a Tsonga/Gasquet pairing but Llodra should play the doubles rubber, maybe with Gasquet? Gasquet is a better doubles player than Simon.

I either want Gasquet to play (Yes Doubles is fine) or not go to Spain. There's no point being the 5th man as he has a tournament straight after the tie. Benneteau who is not playing anything after the DC can be the 5th man and practice with the team.

[Ney]

Yeah - if he will be the 5th man, better prepare for the remaining tournaments than go to Spain.......You get that, Rich?

[kohu]

Monfils is out - knee problems again.

Means RIchard is at least 5th man and depending on Forget's feeling about doubles (Is the Llodra/Benny team vital, especially since they haven't played together for over a year?) Richard could be one of the 4.

Richard I say it's time to takw care of that elbow/shoulder "injury" and get ready for rest of year

He's pretty much in a no win situation, if he withdraws from the team everyone will say he's chicken to play (while Monfils would not get the same criticism for doing the same thing) and if he plays, the chances are very high that he'll loose, maybe even get destroyed and we all know what the talk would be then.

At the rate the USO is going with high chance of rain through at least THursday, parts of both teams may still be playing the USO in the middle of next week FInals are probably Monday now and maybe even later if it rains as much as expected. Nadal, Ferrer, Tsonga, Simon and Llodra (doubles) are still in and some have a good chance of hanging around till close to the end, whenever that will be. Maybe Nadal and /or Ferrer will be dead tired

[ImmzB]

The question is does Forget trust Simon for both rubbers on Clay, if he does he will pick 2 singles players (Tsonga & Simon) and 2 doubles players (Llodra & Benny) which means Richard will miss out. TBH the Llodra/Benny pairing is better than the Llodra/Gasquet pairing and if Forget wants to go with the safe option he will pick 3 singles players and 1 doubles player meaning 1 of the singles player is to play the doubles alongside Llodra.

If the US Open Final is played on Monday, it's likely that Rafa won't arrive in Spain until Tuesday evening maybe he would need more rest and miss Day 1 action but as a Rafa fan I wish him the best for the US Open and wins it!!

If he does play the tie and withdraws from Metz!

[kohu]

[ImmzB]

[kohu]

Forget made his selection and no surprise that Richard is the alternate. I agree with Forget's selection but am mad that Forget wastes Richard's time by asking him to work out with the team when I suspect he knew all the time who his team would be; he just keeps Richard hanging on in case someone else comes up with an injury before the matches.

I hope Richard goes home and prepares for Metz instead of hanging as the 5th man but I bet he stays around, sitting on the bench and doesn't get any hard court practice.

When is Richard going to get the message that Forget does not have the confidence in him to win a DC match (unless he has no other choice) and just tell Forget he's not interested in being the team "cheerleader." BUt as I said before Richard is a bigger man than I.

[Puschkin]