MADRID, 24 (EUROPA PRESS)
The director of the Davis Cup Finals, Fernando Verdasco, counts the hours for the start of the tennis World Cup this Thursday, spread over three venues, Madrid, Innsbruck and Turin, an experience that he already anticipates as “unforgettable” on stage, the fight for the Salad Bowl with many lights and pressure for Carlos Alcaraz.
After a blank year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Davis returns in its second edition in its new format, 10 days to search for the champion. Changes are here to stay. “I have not heard many complaints. When we played with the old format we always complained that it was a hard calendar. Now everything is collected in 10 days, this year in three cities,” he confesses in an interview with Europa Press, in the previous start of the tournament.
Verdasco sees the “delighted players”, “five years from now”, with this new format, because it softens that calendar that also causes frequent casualties. This year, the champion Spain has the sensitive Rafa Nadal, and all the spotlights fall on an Alcaraz that intends to open a new era with the seventh Spanish Salad Bowl.
“He is an 18-year-old boy … He arrives here at Davis with high spirits, with great confidence and in good shape. We hope that Spain will give him many points. With Bautista’s dismissal, he already had pressure because Many people speak of him as Nadal’s replacement, now even more so that maybe he will have to play every game. Hopefully as a Spaniard he is in the best possible shape and can win many points, “he says.
Alcaraz, Pablo Carreño, Marc Granollers, Feliciano López and Albert Ramos, replacing Bautista, will start the initial challenge in Group A on Friday with Russia, one of the favorites, and Ecuador at the Madrid Arena. “Alcaraz has the game, but at Davis we are not talking about a normal tournament,” he warns.
“The pressure of playing for a country is not like playing a tournament there. He is very mature, he is a very good player, advised by Juan Carlos Ferrero, and he will be able to take the pressure, but it is complicated. The normal thing is that the pressure weighs more on him than a normal ATP tournament. Hopefully he knows how to cope with that pressure and that he can give a high level, “he explains about the Murcian’s challenge.
DAVIS RETURNS WITH THE ONE AND THE TWO OF THE WORLD
On the other hand, Verdasco prepares his debut in an organizer role while he is still active, knowing that the 2020 season was doomed for injuries. “It was the perfect moment to open new horizons and experiment with great enthusiasm and eager to enjoy this competition from another point of view. I don’t feel bad not playing because I was the tournament director, because I knew I was not going to play,” he says .
Davis will have absences of big names from the ATP Circuit, such as Roger Federer, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev, Diego Schwartzman or Dominic Thiem, but the tennis World Cup is above. “The Davis Cup is like the soccer World Cup but tennis, although there are 10 players who cannot play no matter how good they are, it is still the World Cup of nations, and if Spain plays, Spain plays,” he confessed.
After two years without Davis, the tournament will return this Thursday with simultaneous action in its three venues. Madrid will have the matches of Groups A and B, Innsbruck of C and F, and Turin, D and E. The champion and host Spain will collide with a favorite like the Russia of Daniil Medvedev, number two in the world, giving more power to a great team.
Meanwhile, the world number one, Novak Djokovic, will be with Serbia in a Group F that are favorites, despite having the host Austria, which will not be able to have an audience due to restrictions due to the coronavirus, and Germany. Finalist Canada will have the casualties of Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov; France has reinvented itself and Italy will not have Matteo Berrettini.
