Big greetings to all tennis fans. I am glad to tell you again about the preparation of our team for the Davis Cup. Unfortunately, during the match with the Chileans, this was not possible. You understand, the game was extremely difficult, and I had to concentrate completely on work, there was not a minute of free time left. I’ll try now to slightly compensate for my “vow of silence” and, before telling about preparations for the match with the French, I’ll be back a month and a half ago.
We really were not favorites in that match - and in this, probably, all the charm of the Davis Cup. The champion of last year already in the first confrontation can resign if he does not jump above his head. But not only this became the key to our victory over the Chileans. The status of favorites played a cruel joke with Latin Americans. Everyone was sure that at home, under the leadership of the great start of the season, Fernando González, the Chileans would simply sweep us astray. They even chose the primer with an eye to the fact that in the next round they will play with the French. But, apparently, these hot Chilean guys burned out. As soon as something did not work out, they began to get nervous, to fuss. We, on the contrary, were absolutely calm. Nobody demanded victory from the guys, the task was one - to play well, in their strength. I think the psychological aspect of the match became decisive.
Many people think that now, before the quarterfinals with the French, we have already been assigned the role of favorites: we play at home, we know our opponent well, we beat him regularly in recent years, all the strongest players in our team have arrived. But believe me, no one is going to underestimate the French. The general mood in the team is this - it will be a difficult match, a battle, and it is good if we win it with a score of 3: 2. Why I think so, I will explain in more detail in my next post when I will talk about rivals. Today I want to pay more attention to our guys.
In Luzhniki we have been training for several days. The composition of our team for the upcoming match is as follows: Marat Safin, Nikolai Davydenko, Igor Andreev, Mikhail Yuzhny. Eugene Korolev and Dmitry Tursunov are declared as spare. But Mitya will not play. He still suffers from a wrist injury, although he was eager to come to mentally support the team. This, incidentally, is to talk about the fact that someone allegedly does not really want to play for the national team. After Nikolai Davydenko and Misha Yuzhny asked not to call them to a match with the Chileans, which was just never heard: Davydenko was offended by something, and Yuzhny was somehow not thanked after last year’s final. All this is complete nonsense. The guys will have a very difficult season, Kolya needs to prove the nonrandomness of his third place in the ATP rating last year, and Misha should rise in this rating after he missed half of last season due to an injury. The guys are not iron and therefore asked Shamil Anvyarovich for one match not to call them to the national team. And our captain went forward without question, because he knew who and how to replace them with. And the fact that now all the strongest in the team and none of them, except the already mentioned Tursunov, have injuries, is largely predetermined by the decision of Tarpishchev.
The first task after all the guys gathered in Moscow was to acclimatize them to the ground on which the match will be held as soon as possible. Since all the recent tournaments were played on hard, this seemed to be a difficult task, but it has already been practically solved. For Safin, the transition from hard was completely long-awaited - he really does not like Marat a series of spring tournaments in the States on this surface. For some reason, he doesn’t like the weather, the court, or the rivals. In Miami, already in the first round I had to play with the uncomfortable Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. And Marat again lost to him, for the fourth time. Well, nothing, he does not get hung up on this defeat: he rested, the freshener came to the national team and still jokes a lot.
But guess who is the best at training now? Kolya Davydenko. This is again to the question of motivation when speaking for the national team. Tearing and tossing is simple. And now we need him a lot more than in the same match with Chile. Kolya is especially good at playing in the halls and, if health does not fail (pah-pah-pah), will help us a lot.
Misha Yuzhny has a great chance to play - especially a couple, which, as in the final match with Argentina, in my opinion, will be almost a decisive match. After several very successful tournaments, Misha has now passed a little. I talked with him and realized that the reason for this was banal fatigue, the traces of which are now almost invisible. I am sure - with the French, and later, on the tour, Yuzhny will please us more than once.
Well, in conclusion - about our hero Igor Andreev. Of course, these enchanting victories over Gonzalez and Massa played with a guy a little cruel joke. On the one hand, confidence was added, on the other, they were incredibly exhausting both psychologically and physically. For a long time he could not recover, and failures in recent tournaments are proof of this. But Igor is very strong in spirit, his nerves - God forbid. Now he’s completely recovered, and, given his special love of the soil, I won’t be surprised if it was Igor who again became the main character of our team in the match with the French.