The first round of the 2011 Davis Cup begins Friday. \u00a0This week, I’ll be previewing the eight Davis Cup World Group ties. \u00a0Let’s start at the top of the draw:<\/p>\n
Serbia vs. India: <\/em>If it were the Davis Cup of doubles, India would be in good shape. \u00a0As it is, the defending champions from Serbia are good enough to beat anybody, let alone a side with only one singles player in the top 500.<\/p>\n India does boast one of the best doubles teams in Davis Cup play, with Leander Paes<\/strong> and Mahesh Bhupathi<\/strong>. \u00a0That’s one rubber. \u00a0If Somdev Devvarman<\/strong> has a great day, he might be able to beat Janko Tipsarevic<\/strong> or Viktor Troicki<\/strong>. \u00a0That’s two rubbers–maybe. \u00a0No matter how you slice it, you’re not going to come up with any more.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic<\/strong>, fresh off another victory in Dubai, is just about unbeatable on hard courts, and no one’s going to challenge that this weekend. \u00a0My not-very bold prediction: Serbia wins, 4-1.<\/strong><\/p>\n Russia vs. Sweden: <\/em>This one is a little more interesting. \u00a0I wrote last week about Russia’s solid Davis Cup team a few years down the road, but this year things don’t look so rosy. \u00a0The Russian side is relatively deep, but with Nikolay Davydenko<\/strong> and Mikhail Youhzny<\/strong> sitting it out, they don’t have a singles player currently inside the top 75. \u00a0Igor Andreev<\/strong> has had some doubles success, but the Russians are lacking in doubles expertise, as well.<\/p>\n Sweden is the exact opposite. \u00a0The presence of Robin Soderling<\/strong> would make any squad a fearsome one, but beyond that, you get the impression that they didn’t quite know how to find three more players. \u00a0Among those three are two doubles specialists, Simon Aspelin<\/strong> and Robert Lindstedt<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It all pivots on the doubles match. \u00a0Soderling gives the Swedes two easy victories. \u00a0Joachim Johansson<\/strong>, at this point in his career, will probably not beat any of the Russians in a singles match. \u00a0That leaves Aspelin\/Lindstedt against Andreev and maybe Igor Kunitsyn<\/strong>. \u00a0It could go either way, but I’ll pick Sweden, 3-2.<\/strong><\/p>\n Challengers: <\/em>There’s a free live stream<\/a> for the Dallas challenger this week, which gave me the opportunity to watch some truly mediocre tennis yesterday. \u00a0I missed the one notable result from yesterday’s action, in which American 18-year-old Jack Sock<\/strong> took down Rik De Voest<\/strong>, a veteran South African currently ranked 160th. \u00a0Straight sets, no less.<\/p>\n If you’re a fan of American tennis, today’s card is for you. \u00a0Five of the seven singles matches scheduled<\/a> are between two U.S. players, including the main event: #1 seed Robert Kendrick<\/strong> against super-teenager Ryan Harrison<\/strong>. \u00a0Also of interest is the second match, pitting South African Izak van der Merwe<\/strong> against another American teen, Denis Kudla<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Only two other challenger results worth mentioning. \u00a0Grigor Dimitrov<\/strong> had an easy time advancing over David Guez<\/strong> to the second round in Cherbourg, while in Salinas, Horacio Zeballos<\/strong> needed a third-set tiebreak to overcome American wildcard Eric Nunez<\/strong>.<\/p>\n See you tomorrow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first round of the 2011 Davis Cup begins Friday. \u00a0This week, I’ll be previewing the eight Davis Cup World Group ties. \u00a0Let’s start at the top of the draw: Serbia vs. India: If it were the Davis Cup of doubles, India would be in good shape. \u00a0As it is, the defending champions from Serbia … Continue reading Tuesday Topspin: Davis Cup and Dallas<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,24,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challengers","category-daily-recaps","category-davis-cup"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}