TENNIS in DEPTH.

Alberto Costa, the Spanish Davis Cup team captain, should be worried about his two top players. The ATP tour finals are over for Nadal and Verdasco, the two worst players in the tournament, and they are both headed home to represent their country in the Davis Cup against the well rested Czech team.

Nadal was the only player in London who never won a set, and Verdasco lost all three of his matches. It is possible that both players are injured, but even if they are healthy Costa would be smart to consider choosing two fresh players from the wealth of talent that Spain has available.

Ferrer, Robredo, Ferrero, Almegro, Montanes and Lopez are all available, and all capable of representing their country against the underdog Czech team. On clay when he is in form Rafa is almost unbeatable, but he is not in form, nor has he played on clay since the Madrid Open(which he lost to Federer). Verdasco is ready for surgery, and should be sidelined.

For the sake of the team both Nadal and Verdasco should withdraw voluntarily from the Davis Cup final, and not put Costa in unenviable position.

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With or without Verdasco the Spanish Davis Cup team will enter the final as the odds on favourites. They are at home, on clay, and have 2 top ten players in their lineup, whereas the Czechs have none. Looks like an easy romp for the home team. But they might be over confident.

Rafa on clay, even at 75% of his norm is still the best clay court player and will win both his matches. The doubles I give to the Czechs, they are the best pair. So it all comes down to Spain’s #2 player, and whether it is Ferrer or Verdasco, Radel Stepanik will win his rubber. The score could be tied 2-2 going into the final match between Berdych and Verdasco/Ferrer……a toss up!

Fernando Verdasco will be hoping to shake off some niggly injuries to take his place in the Spanish team to face Czech Republic in next week’s Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Final in Barcelona.

Verdasco has been selected in the squad by Albert Costa, Spain’s captain, alongside Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez. It will be his 11th Davis Cup tie since making his debut against Slovak Republic in 2006.

“The foot is feeling good,” said Verdasco, who is competing at the ATP World Tour Finals in London this week. “Physically, I was with some problems in my knees but I took some days off.

“I hope that all the matches here at the Masters will be without pain and also I will arrive in Spain to play the Davis Cup feeling good. I need to see day-by-day how I will feel and then we will see if I am the best option to play.

“If not, I will not be angry. I just want to win the Final of the Davis Cup and if it’s me playing, and I’m the one, then of course I’ll be so happy.

“But if I’m not ready, or if I have pain, or I feel that Ferrer or another guy of my team is in better shape than me and can play better than me, then I will talk to the captain.

“I will not be selfish and think only about myself. I will think about the team and winning the Davis Cup, whoever plays the matches.”

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Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco have returned to the Spain side for next month’s Davis Cup final against Czech Republic, captain Albert Costa said on Monday.

David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez complete the four-man team for the December 4-6 tie in Barcelona where Spain will seek a fourth title in 10 years.

Nadal has not played for his country since the first-round tie against Serbia in March and missed both the quarter-final against Germany in July and September’s last-four clash against Israel due to injury.

Verdasco, ranked eight, was also sidelined for the Israel tie, but has returned to clinch a place at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals at the end of this month.

The final will take place on Spain’s favoured clay surface at the indoor Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, scene of the first of Spain’s three Davis Cup triumphs in 2000 when a team featuring Costa defeated Lleyton Hewitt’s Australia.

They followed up with a win against the United States in Seville in 2004 and victory over Argentina in Mar del Plata last year.

“The Davis Cup is my main objective remaining for the year,” Nadal, who also missed the 2008 final due to injury, said in an interview  on Sunday.

“To play in the Palau Sant Jordi, where I carried the team flag in 2000, and experience that now as a player and not a spectator will be a marvellous experience.”

The Spanish have a deep pool of tennis talent, with 11 players in the top 100, while the Czechs rely on the two-man show of former top-10 players Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych, now ranked 12 and 20 respectively.

Spain are attempting to become the first team to retain the Davis Cup since Sweden in 1998 and are undefeated at home in 17 ties. They have not lost on clay in 19.

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Roger Federer ensured Switzerland will stay in the Davis Cup World Group by crushing Potito Starace on Sunday.

Federer won 6-3 6-0 6-4 in one hour and 41 minutes to give the Swiss a unassailable 3-1 lead against Italy in Genoa.

France will also keep their place among tennis’ elite after beating Holland.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga clinched the crucial third point for the French, beating Thiemo de Bakker 7-6 (7/5) 6-2 3-6 7-6 (7/4).

De Bakker had shocked Gael Monfils in Friday’s opening rubber but France stormed back to win the next three.

It was a similar story in Sweden where the hosts lost the opening rubber but then won the next three to see off Romania.

Robin Soderling clinched the victory on Sunday, beating Victor Hanescu 7-5 6-1 6-0 in the fourth rubber.

Arguably the most exciting play-off came in Charleroi where hosts Belgium won the final rubber against Ukraine to book their place in next season’s top flight.

Sergiy Stakhovsky kept the tie alive by beating Xavier Malisse in five sets but Steve Darcis was the home hero, thrashing late replacement Sergei Bubka 6-2 6-1 6-0 in the deciding match.

Somdev Devvarman earned India victory in South Africa, beating Rik De Voest in five sets to take his side to the three-point mark in the fourth rubber. Devvarman came from two sets down to win 3-6 6-7 (3/7) 7-6 (7/5) 6-2 6-4.

Elsewhere, Serbia completed a 5-0 victory over Uzbekistan.

The eight play-off winners will go into Wednesday’s draw for the 2010 World Group.

The two semi-finals had both been decided on Saturday with Spain and the Czech Republic both opening unassailable 3-0 leads.

Both ties finished 4-1 after the dead rubbers were split on Sunday.

In Murcia, David Ferrer defeated Israel’s Andy Ram 6-3 6-1 to extend Spain’s lead but Harel Levy made the final score 4-1 by securing a 7-5 6-2 win over Feliciano Lopez.

In Porec, Jan Hajek defeated Roko Karanusic 7-6 6-4 before Croatia avoided a whitewash when Lovro Zovko beat Lukas Dlouhy 6-3 6-4.

The final will be held in Spain, and probably on clay, in December.

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The world No 3 risked worsening the injury to his left wrist to play alongside Ross Hutchins in the hope of earning the win in the key doubles rubber which was most likely to offer up an escape route from relegation to the third tier of the competition.

Instead, even despite Murray’s quality largely carrying Hutchins throughout the match, the pair succumbed 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to the world-class duo of Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg and not even the Scot’s class and devotion is guaranteed to make him Britain’s saviour again on Sunday.

  Saturday’s defeat put the Poles 2-1 ahead in the tie and makes them firm favourites to this afternoon consign Britain to Group Two of the Euro/Africa Zone where they will end up rubbing shoulders with the likes of Monaco and Lithuania.

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Spain reached its second straight Davis Cup final when Feliciano Lopez and Tommy Robredo defeated Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram 76 67 64 62.

A flicked backhand volley from Robredo clinched the rubber and the tie to give Spain its 7th successive Davis Cup victory and extend its run of home victories to 17.

Spain will face Czech Republic in the final in Spain on 4-6 December with the venue to be announced in the next two weeks.

The Czechs became the first of the finalists after Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek accounted for Marin Cilic and Lovro Zovko. Berdych and Stepanek have achieved an honour that their nation has enjoyed just twice before in the 76 years the Czechs have been part of Davis Cup. In 1975, Czechoslovakia was runner-up to Sweden and then in 1980, led by Ivan Lendl, they beat Italy to win the title.

Berdych and Stepanek showed no ill effects of their long five set matches in the singles on the opening day. They came in as the substitutes for US Open doubles champion Lukas Dlouhy and Jan Hernych, and defeated Marin Cilic, who took the place of Roko Karanusic, and Lovro Zovko 61 63 64 in 2hr 16min.

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Murray’s straight sets victory in the opening rubber of the Euro/Africa Zone Group One tie against Poland in Liverpool was fashioned predictably enough but with plenty of grimaces as he admitted with real concern that he was only worsening the injury with every game.

And with debutant Dan Evans then capitulating fairly tamely in his rubber, Murray was left facing the prospect of having to play in both Saturday’s doubles alongside Ross Hutchins, and Sunday’s reverse singles to help Britain avoid the embarrassment of being dumped into the third division of the Cup for the first time in 13 years.

Captain John Lloyd, who knows Britain are more likely to fall 2-1 behind if Colin Fleming has to replace Murray in the doubles against the Poles’ world No 11 pairing of Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg, admitted: “I would love Andy to play but he knows his body better than I do. He’ll go as far as he can.” It is a considerable predicament for the world No 3, who admitted after defeating Michal Przysiezny 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 that he feared longer-term damage to his wrist by playing on three consecutive days.

“If I feel fine I’ll play (in the doubles). If I don’t, then I might not play because I can’t make it worse every single day and then by Sunday be struggling,” said Murray.

“I sacrificed a lot to play here and I don’t want to end up hurting myself so badly that I can’t play for a few months. Any time I play on it is making it worse.” Murray said he would have to take time off after the tie and visit the same specialist who had treated him when he injured his right wrist two years ago, a problem which kept him out of the game for three months.

This time, the injury, the details of which Murray still refuses to make public, is to his other wrist which affects him on his most effective weapon, the double-fisted backhand. On Friday, against the skilled but outgunned world No 678 Przysiezny, he was able to “find ways around it” by using more slice and less power in their two-hour match.

Yet admitting that the heavily-strapped wrist was hurting him, a fact made obvious from a couple of yelps of pain which echoed around the Echo Arena, he conceded he had no idea how long it would take to clear up.

“If it takes four months to get there, then it takes four months. If it takes a week, I will take a week off,” he shrugged. “We’ll have to see how the treatment goes.” If it is a four-month problem, then Murray could miss the rest of the season, including the eagerly-awaited ATP World Tour Finals in London in November.

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In one of the longest matches on record Radek Stepanek finally defeated Ivo Karlovic 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 7-6, 14-16! After 82 games lasting 6 hours there was just one break of service in the entire match. Karlovic had a match point on Stepanek’s service at 11-10 in the 5th set, but failed to convert. The win gives the Czeck Republic a 1-0 advantage over Croatia.

In the seaside city of Porec in Croatia, it was an absolute marathon on the opening day of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas semi final tie between Croatia and the Czech Republic, two nations that have won this glorious championship once before. The Croats won it in 2005 and the Czechs in 1980.

After the opening day’s singles that saw a total of nine hours 47 minutes of tennis played, the Czech Republic has placed itself one match away from the final of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas

The day started with the amazing match between Radek Stepanekand Ivo Karlovic which Stepanek won to give the visitors the early lead. It then seemed like the Czechs were cruising to a quick 2-0 lead when Tomas Berdychlead Marin Cilic by two sets to love but the lanky Croat rallied and forced a fifth set.

Berdych then seemed to get a second wind and he rolled through the final set to seal the victory 63 63 36 46 63 in three hours 48 minutes.

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