Compatibility as Davis Cup captain and coach of the German generates divisions in the Spanish team
Sergi Bruguera, captain of the Spanish Davis Cup team, will again have to occupy an uncomfortable position in the match that will be played this Friday, not before 2:45 p.m., by Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev in search of the Roland Garros final. As happened against Carlos Alcaraz in the Madrid final and again against Murcia last Wednesday in the quarterfinals, the former two-time champion on the Parisian clay will sit in the box of Alexander Zverev, close to his father, who once recovered from his health problems has returned to closely monitor the evolution of the number three in the world.
Bruguera, as a logical reaction to the new responsibility acquired since last March at the Masters 1000 in Miami, celebrated Zverev’s qualification for the semifinals with joy at Philippe-Chatrier, after remaining sober and tempered throughout the match. The fact of reconciling both positions has already caused discomfort among some Spanish players, who met in Paris before the start of the tournament. At the moment, although David Ferrer’s name sounds as a replacement, the Spanish Tennis Federation has not made decisions.
Spain will play in Valencia, from September 13 to 18, the group stage of the Davis Cup, having been drawn with Serbia, Canada and Korea. In case of qualifying, he would fight for the seventh Salad Bowl in the final phase of Malaga, in November. The normal thing is that Bruguera, at the head of the team in the conquest of the sixth, in 2019, fulfills his contract and continues in office at least until the end of the course, unless the situation ends up poisoning.
Zverev, a temperamental player who is threatened with an eight-week ban and a 23,000-euro fine if he repeats behaviors such as hitting the referee’s chair with his racket at the Acapulco tournament, has already had Juan Carlos Ferrero and David Ferrer in a bench often inflamed by his vehement and rude reactions, which were one of the reasons why Ferrero, today successful and happy next to Alcaraz, decided to leave him. Number three in the world, double champion of the ATP Finals, finalist of the United States Open in 2020 and winner of 19 ATP titles, the 25-year-old player from Hamburg does not finish responding to what he seemed to be called for, in partly, more than due to the lack of tennis qualities, due to a lack of attitude and an erratic direction of his career.
An overprotective environment
Benjamin from a family dedicated to tennis, starting with his parents, Alexander and Irina, both former Russian professional players, and his brother Mischa, who at 34 still plays second-order tournaments, the youngest of the Zverevs, close to Two meters tall and with the poise of a gallon, he has grown up in an overprotective environment that explains his mental fragility.
Bruguera, who throughout his brilliant career also left little edifying episodes in public dealings with his father and coach, Llus, is now on the other side of the stageexposed to the indifference of a young man who, although it is far from any analogy with his way of playing, evokes parallels for his angry and unruly character.
He is a hard, rocky player, who moves very well for how tall he is, Moy portrayed yesterday the tennis player Zverev, who has lost in six of his nine games against Nadal, and in four of the five they played on grass. Surviving a match point and two adverse sets in the second round, against the Argentinian Sebastian Bez, Sascha, as he is also known in the circuit, repeats in the semifinals of the tournament, where he stopped him last year Stefanos Tsitsipas, another man from the so-called Next Gen weakened by the complicity of his parents.
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