Davis Cup World Group Squads Announced

The squads for the opening rounds of the 2013 Davis Cup have been announced and the Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic has made himself available. After the first Grand Slam of the year it will be interesting to see if players can reproduce their good form again or, in some cases, can they rediscover form as they represent their countries. Defending champions Czech Republic have an away tie in Switzerland and must do without the fifth rubber hero from the final, Radek Stepanek, who withdrew today. Spain are without David Ferrer, Rafa Nadal and Fernando Verdasco which leaves them vulnerable against Canada. So let's go through the fixtures and squads.

          As I said Spain are left short this week but they do have the in form Nicolas Almagro in their squad. They also have Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez available for doubles duty. Albert Ramos is the fourth player but don't be surprised to see Granollers on singles and doubles duty. They face a tricky Canadian side with Milos Raonic the big danger. Vasek Pospisil will be the second singles player and the North American outfit will be hoping he can pick up at least one win as they attempt to pull off the upset. Their doubles side is likely to be Frank Dancevic and the experienced Daniel Nestor. Canada have home advantage and have opted to play on an indoor hard court which gives them a great chance to get a result.

          Italy have taken full advantage of the home venue rule as they bring the big hitting Croatian side to an indoor clay arena in Turin. Andreas Seppi and Fabio Fognini are likely to be the singles players with Paolo Lorenzi and Simone Bolelli playing doubles. The Croatian side is headed by Marin Cilic who will be looking for revenge on Seppi after his Aussie Open defeat and he is joined by Ivan Dodig. Antonio Veic and Mate Pavic will be the doubles outfit. The Croatians may be the slight favourites but the surface may edge it towards Italy. 

          Another country hoping to use their home advantage is Belgium as they bring tournament favourites, Serbia, to an indoor clay arena. The Belgians have a strong side head by David Goffin. He is backed up by the unpredictable Steve Darcis and their doubles line up is likely to be Ruben Bemelmans and Olivier Rochus. The surface is clearly an attempt to make the Serbians uncomfortable but the bad news for Belgium is that Serbia have got Novak Djokovic available to them. He is joined by Janko Tipsarevic as Serbia boast possibly the best singles combination in the world right now. Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic will play the doubles tie. 

          With home advantage the USA are one of the toughest teams to beat. John Isner and Sam Querrey will be their singles team and on the indoor hard courts of Jacksonville they are likely to be competitive against any outfit. They will face a Brazilian singles side of Thomaz Bellucci and Thiago Alves. The doubles encounter is always in the USA's favour no matter who they play as the Brian Brothers, Bob and Mike, take part. Their opposition is going to be Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares but the Americans will be heavily fancied in their own back yard.

          Rouen, in the North of France, is the venue for the meeting between France and Israel. The indoor hard courts are likely to be advantageous to the singles duo of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet. Two in for players are going to be tough to beat and the men charged with that task are Dudi Sela and Amir Weintraub. Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau are the French doubles duo and they will face a strong Israeli side in Andy Ram and Jonathan Elrich.

          Argentina must do without Juan Martin Del Potro for their clash with Germany but still have a strong line up to call upon. On the outdoor clay they will fancy clay court specialist Juan Monaco to get the job done and I would imagine David Nalbandian will be their other singles player. He has played doubles more often for Argentina in the last few years but Horacio Zeballos and Carlos Berlocq have played a lot of doubles in the last year so logically I think they will be the doubles side. Germany have got Philipp Kohlschreiber and Florian Mayer playing singles and a nice doubles pairing of Tobias Kamke and Christopher Kas. 

          Kazakhstan have brought Austria to another indoor clay arena and will call upon Mikhail Kukushkin to lead their side. He is joined by Andrey Golubev and the doubles pairing of Evgeny Korolev and Yuri Schukin. They face a tricky match with Austria led by the experienced Jurgen Melzer. Their other singles player is likely to be Andreas Haider Maurer. Alexander Peya and Julien Knowle are the other two men but don't be surprised to see Knowle overlooked.

          The final match up is the fascinating encounter between Switzerland and Czech Republic. The Swiss side are led by Stanislas Wawrinka who had a thrilling match with Djokovic in Melbourne last week so he will be watched by everyone this week to see if it was fluke. Marco Chiudinelli will be the other singles player and the doubles pairing is Michael Lammer and Henri Laakson. The indoor hard courts was an interesting choice considering the Czechs have chosen Tomas Berdych who could prosper on the hard courts. Ivo Minar replaces Radek Stepanek as their singles pairing and that leaves the doubles pairing unknown. They usually go Berdych/Stepanek but they could now opt for Lukas Rosol and Jiri Vesely.