Czechs to bounce out Argentinians in Buenos Aires

The Davis Cup World Group semi-finals take place on outdoor clay courts in Argentina and Spain from Friday to Sunday and one of the home teams may come undone in their own backyard.

Argentina is the side that could find easily itself on the end of an unfavourable scoreline when it plays the Czech Republic in Buenos Aires. Naturally, bookmakers favour both the Argentinians and the Spaniards but a repeat of last year`s Davis Cup World Cup final is not a certainty.

Juan Martin Del Potro and Juan Monaco are likely to play Argentina`s four singles rubbers against the Czech Republic, with Carlos Berlocq and Eduardo Schwank teaming up for the doubles. The Czechs are likely to field Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek in the singles, with team captain Jaroslav Navratil erring towards picking them together for the doubles. Ivo Minar and Lukas Rosol are in reserve.

Del Potro has a winning head-to-head singles record versus Berdych - 4-2 irrespective of surface and 3-1 on clay courts - but that is where the good news ends for Argentina. It gets rapidly worse as one goes through the other rubbers.

Del Potro trails Stepanek 1-3, although they have yet to meet on a clay court with all four of their encounters taking place on hard courts between 2009 and this year.

Monaco is down 2-4 versus Stepanek, including 1-2 on clay courts, while the tennis player they call Pico has lost all five of his clashes against Berdych, three of which have taken place on the slowest of the common surfaces.

The doubles rubber will most probably go the way of the Czech Republic, with Stepanek ranked in the world`s top 10 men`s doubles players and neither of the likely Argentinian participants ranked higher than 60th position currently.

According to exhaustive head-to-head singles statistics and the latest doubles rankings, the Czech Republic has a great chance of winning the tie, even allowing for the fact that Argentina will have the support of a fanatical home crowd.

The other Davis Cup World Group semi-final between Spain and the United States of America should be a breeze for the overall tournament favourite on a clay court in Gijon.

David Ferrer leads John Isner 3-1 and is level at 1-1 with Sam Querrey but all six of those matches took place on hard courts. Ferrer is a much better clay-court tennis exponent than the Americans and should win both his singles rubbers.

Nicolas Almagro leads Isner 1-0 and is up 3-2 on Querrey. Almagro beat Isner on grass of all surfaces so expect him to frank the form on clay, while he has won both his clay-court battles versus Querrey. Now can you see why Spain should qualify for the 2012 Davis Cup World Group final easily.

The United States of America should win the doubles rubber with the Bryan brothers - Bob and Mike - having a strong recent head-to-head record against Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez but one swallow does not make a summer.

Back the Czech Republic to upset Argentina in Buenos Aires and, also, consider snapping up the long odds about the Czechs winning the competition for the first time since 1980. They would host the title decider if Spain comes through its tie versus the United States of America.

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13/09/2012     © Frixo 2024