CWLand Davis Cup team named to face Germany in World Group play-off
CWLand Davis Cup captain James Nixon has announced that world No. 6 Sven Oxenstierna, world No. 12 Jefferson Drake, and CW Open champions Heath Davis and Jojo Mustard will represent CWLand in the Season I Davis Cup World Group Play-offs against Germany at the AWD Dome in Bremen, Germany.
The inclusion of Davis and Mustard came following their triumph in the CW Open final; Nixon admitting that the result played some part in the decision to include the pair ahead of Drake and his partner Martti Korpinen. "It was going to be a tough decision either way, but their win made it much easier. We wanted consistency in our selections for the singles rubbers, and having a designated doubles team allows us to do that," said Nixon. "It is tough on Martti because he and Drake have probably had the more rounded results, but Drake has played a lot of tennis and we don't want to take any chances."
He also admitted that the surface played a part in the decision: "Had this been on clay, we might have been tempted to pick [Randy] Smeltz over Drake, but we feel we've picked the best possible team to make a run at the World Group next year." As it is, Randy Smeltz will travel with the team as first reserve.
Meanwhile, German captain Luther Krause's squad includes world No. 26 Becker Haas, world No. 82 Alex Peters and doubles team Manfried Manz and Walter Schiller. Max Eisenhauer, who competed in Germany's 2-3 loss to Austria in March, has been included as a reserve.
Other Davis Cup news:
The United States have named an unchanged squad for their semifinal against Serbia at the Beogradska Arena in Belgrade, Serbia. Australian and CW Open champion Jason Hall and French Open semifinalist Dwayne will contest the singles rubbers, whilst world No. 1 doubles pair Hugh James and Ralph Robinson will contest the singles. World No. 5 and Wimbledon champion Darcy Cowan has again been named reserve.
Serbia have also named an unchanged squash with Radivoj Daneu, Danijel Micic and doubles pairing Dusko Milošević and Savo Petkoviä named alongside Srđan Ivic as an alternate. In their sensational win over Spain in July, Milošević did not appear as Daneu pulled triple duty.
In the other semifinal, Russia have overlooked 40-year old Vladimir Gryzlov in favour of dynamic Stuttgart semifinalist Gregor Gorshkov. Gryzlov has been dropped from the squad completely along with teenager Boris Denisov, as Gorshkov, Dmitry Orlov, Alexey Yarkin and Sergey Malachenko were named with Oleg Puder as hitting partner. Overachievers Austria make no change to their squad with Jurgen & Zbiginiew Boniek, Martin Reiter and Heinz Hainisch named as their starting four.
