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Earth vs. The Universe, Pick Earth’s Davis Cup Team
5 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Scoop
![DSC_8457[1]](https://www.tennis-prose.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/DSC_84571.jpeg)
I was reading Jack Kramer’s old bio this weekend and one chapter had the former great American champion discussing the hypothetical Earth vs. The Universe Davis Cup team.
Right now, I’d select Djokovic and Nadal at singles, Federer and Nalbandian at doubles. I’m leaving off the Bryans because they’ve lost their last two Davis Cup matches to much lesser Brazil and Serbia doubles duos.
I think Federer would shine more in doubles right now, but he is also a question mark in the Davis Cup arena, you never know if he’ll show up at his best. Some of Fed’s Davis Cup performances have been surprisingly substandard, he lost to Isner in singles and also Rojer and Haase in doubles with Stan. Davis Cup has never been a high priority for him. It has been for Nalbandian, as the veteran Argentine has called Davis Cup his favorite tournament.
But I’d still put Federer on my Planetary Davis Cup team right now.
Who would you pick for your Earth’s All Star Davis Cup team right now?
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Steve · May 13, 2013 at 7:49 am
I would like to see Nalby & Haas play doubles together.
The crowds in Davis Cup are the most intense and Djokovic is not always up for that as we’ve seen recently. I think Nadal & Ferrer or Nadal and Delpo would work better.
Right now Federer is rusty. 7 week vacations tend to do that.
Scoop Malinowski · May 13, 2013 at 9:05 am
Steve I think you have to work in the Argentine somehow, they have the best fans of Davis Cup. Benjamin Becker said when they played Argentina in Germany, Argentina had about 30 fans there and they were far more animated and raucous than the whole German arena, with their singing and passionate support. Haas is not known for his doubles work, I can’t ever remember seeing him play an important doubles match, or any for that matter. His volleys are better now, I remember about ten years ago Patrick McEnroe used to say on ESPN that Haas doesn’t go to net enough and if he could he’d have better results. Then during the match Haas would go in and miss the volley. But Haas is better at net now, he made some nice volleys vs. Djok in Miami.
Steve · May 13, 2013 at 9:23 am
Haas finishes a lot of points at net in the matches I’ve watched. He seems to transition to net very smoothly and is decisive when he gets there.
For enjoyment I’d prefer Malisse/Dolgo but they are little too wild to count on for the win.
Scoop Malinowski · May 13, 2013 at 10:00 am
Haas used to be a baseliner, about 10-15 years ago. He didn’t like being at net or attacking. PMac used to say this a lot during Haas matches on ESPN. Haas definitely got better. Dolgo-X won five of their matches in IW when they won the title vs. Fed-Stan, in supertiebreaks. They sure do play low margin tennis. )
Steve · May 13, 2013 at 10:37 am
Well in 2006 Haas came to the net a lot so he’s been doing it a while now.