Clearly, Nicolas Almagro will be just fine. The world No. 11 has been named to lead Spain against Canada at the Davis Cup at UBC Feb. 1-3.
Almagro hobbled through the second half of a five-setter against Spanish compatriot David Ferrer just a few hours ago — Tuesday night in Melbourne, at the Australian Open — and lost a match he’d come agonizingly close to winning in straight sets. Almagro says he suffered ankle and adductor injuries in the third set; it was remarkable that he even bothered to try to fend off Ferrer for the final two sets. In fact, on Ferrer’s winning cross-court shot, Almagro was already walking to the net to shake hands.
Besides Almagro, who’s won nine ATP tour titles, Spain will also be represented by the top-five doubles team of Marcel Granollers — also No. 33 in the world in singles — and Marc Lopez, plus world No. 51 Albert Ramos.
Canada counters with Ontario’s 15th-ranked Milos Raonic, who fell to Roger Federer in the fourth round at the Australian Open Monday; the doubles great, Daniel Nestor of Toronto; Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil, ranked 127th in singles; and Niagara Falls’ Frank Dancevic, ranked 165th.
The Canadian team will be supported by Jesse Levine, the Ottawa-born player who grew up in the U.S. but recently announced his intention to play for Canada; Toronto’s Adil Shamasdin; and Vancouver’s Filip Peliwo, who won the junior U.S. Open and Wimbledon in 2012 and reached the final of the other two majors, the French Open and Australian Open.
Should Canada win, figure on seeing Peliwo entertain his hometown crowd with a reprisal of his Gangnam Style celebration in Montreal after Canada beat South Africa to return to the world group:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_U79KimSlM
Canada’s head coach, Martin Laurendeau, alluded in the announcement to Spain’s amazing 13 players in the top 100 (neither worlds No. 4 Rafael Nadal, who’s recovering from injury, nor No. 5 Ferrer will make the trip), but pointed out a key to Davis Cup success: “Our guys will train hard all week and be at their best for the weekend, but we will also need a loud crowd on our side to help us pull off this upset.”
A year ago, when Canada hosted France at the same Davis Cup stage at UBC, the crowd was indeed into it — until Raonic pulled out after Saturday’s double loss, which dropped Canada to 1-2 and virtually ensured — with Dancevic having to face France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first match Sunday — that Canada’s hopes were finished.
Spain is the top-ranked Davis Cup team in the world and has won the tournament five times since 2000.
Some tickets remain for the event, at ticketmaster.ca.
The two singles matches on Friday, Feb. 1 begin at 1 p.m. Saturday’s doubles match also begins at 1, while Sunday’s “reverse singles” matches start at 11 a.m.
