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feather_ghyll) wrote2024-09-17 08:15 am
feather_ghyll) wrote2024-09-17 08:15 am
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TENNIS: Davis Cup 2024
I was reminded that the Davis Cup was on and the British matches were on iPlayer, so I caught up on Friday’s singles, with Dan Evans playing against Tomas Martin Etcheverry. Their rankings have Etcheverry in the top 35, while Evans is way down in the 170s, but they’d both made the third round of the US Open, and at his best, which is often at Davis Cup, Evans is a much better player than that ranking. There was a key game early in the first set that went on for fifteen minutes. Etcheverry faced down several break points and emerged the stronger, winning in two sets. He looked like the one who’d had the better year, which he was.
I followed the second match more closely. Jack Draper is ranked higher than Francisco Cerundulo and on paper should have won this, but after Draper failed to break, he conceded a game to love, and Cerundulo was playing a dream set until serving for it, when he rather handed the break back. But he was the better player in the tiebreak and his forehand was mighty.
In the second set, Draper and captain Leon Smith tried targeting the backhand and changing the pattern, which looked like it might yield results, but never quite did. Possibly this was too soon after his semi-final run at the US Open, and, really, Draper has only managed to play the tour properly, without injury, since last year’s US Open, he’s inexperienced at Davis Cup etc etc. Argentina had improved a lot since their first rubber against Canada, and posed a tougher challenge than Finland, who GB had won 2-1 earlier in the week without Draper. They had a home advantage as it was in Manchester, but not as much of an advantage as in formats gone by, because the indoor hard court had to play like the three others being used for the other groups all over the world were.
On Sunday, GB needed to win all three matches to get through in the last rubber. Canada needed to win just one. Both their no. 2 players faced each other, so Shapavalov (no 100 now, but top 10 in the past) faced Evans. Evans lost his serve early and I nodded off, coming to to find that Shapavalov had bagelled Evans. The second set was more like it, with Evans holding his serve and, late in the set, getting some break points. But Shapavalov was playing controlled tennis, probably buoyed after this week, and as a lefty, it was a bad match up against Evans, whose forehand wasn’t working quite as it should. A shot went long to hand Shapavalov a break and a win in two sets, assuring the Canadians would go through to the knock-out stage. They were champions in 2022, although I would favour Italy who are also through sans Sinner.
Draper and Auger-Aliasseme still had to play, and although there were some points at stake with implications for next year, it was mainly personal pride, with them being world no. 20 and 21 respectively, and of course the last time they played, there was that infamous point that needed video replay!
I learned that Draper isn’t a proper lefty, but a natural right-hander like Nadal (although I presume both of them have high levels of ambidextrousness, really.) This match started off more competitively, although Draper had to serve himself out of trouble in the early games, while his opponent was winning more easily. This continued to be the case throughout the high-quality first set, which went to a tiebreak, and Auger-Aliasseme had several set points, which Draper defended fabulously until he couldn’t. (And then he did such a number on his racquet that they had to spend quite some time blowing the pieces of the court. They should have made him do that.)
I fast-forwarded through the second set, which apparently featured a break and a break back, and then was won by the Canadian. Draper may well have to tell himself that it was a week too soon, and should probably take a proper break (in top level tennis player terms, that’s not long because the tour is gruelling). GB won the doubles. I think I know seven of the eight countries that made it through. Apparently the format will be rejigged next year.
I followed the second match more closely. Jack Draper is ranked higher than Francisco Cerundulo and on paper should have won this, but after Draper failed to break, he conceded a game to love, and Cerundulo was playing a dream set until serving for it, when he rather handed the break back. But he was the better player in the tiebreak and his forehand was mighty.
In the second set, Draper and captain Leon Smith tried targeting the backhand and changing the pattern, which looked like it might yield results, but never quite did. Possibly this was too soon after his semi-final run at the US Open, and, really, Draper has only managed to play the tour properly, without injury, since last year’s US Open, he’s inexperienced at Davis Cup etc etc. Argentina had improved a lot since their first rubber against Canada, and posed a tougher challenge than Finland, who GB had won 2-1 earlier in the week without Draper. They had a home advantage as it was in Manchester, but not as much of an advantage as in formats gone by, because the indoor hard court had to play like the three others being used for the other groups all over the world were.
On Sunday, GB needed to win all three matches to get through in the last rubber. Canada needed to win just one. Both their no. 2 players faced each other, so Shapavalov (no 100 now, but top 10 in the past) faced Evans. Evans lost his serve early and I nodded off, coming to to find that Shapavalov had bagelled Evans. The second set was more like it, with Evans holding his serve and, late in the set, getting some break points. But Shapavalov was playing controlled tennis, probably buoyed after this week, and as a lefty, it was a bad match up against Evans, whose forehand wasn’t working quite as it should. A shot went long to hand Shapavalov a break and a win in two sets, assuring the Canadians would go through to the knock-out stage. They were champions in 2022, although I would favour Italy who are also through sans Sinner.
Draper and Auger-Aliasseme still had to play, and although there were some points at stake with implications for next year, it was mainly personal pride, with them being world no. 20 and 21 respectively, and of course the last time they played, there was that infamous point that needed video replay!
I learned that Draper isn’t a proper lefty, but a natural right-hander like Nadal (although I presume both of them have high levels of ambidextrousness, really.) This match started off more competitively, although Draper had to serve himself out of trouble in the early games, while his opponent was winning more easily. This continued to be the case throughout the high-quality first set, which went to a tiebreak, and Auger-Aliasseme had several set points, which Draper defended fabulously until he couldn’t. (And then he did such a number on his racquet that they had to spend quite some time blowing the pieces of the court. They should have made him do that.)
I fast-forwarded through the second set, which apparently featured a break and a break back, and then was won by the Canadian. Draper may well have to tell himself that it was a week too soon, and should probably take a proper break (in top level tennis player terms, that’s not long because the tour is gruelling). GB won the doubles. I think I know seven of the eight countries that made it through. Apparently the format will be rejigged next year.