Spain will be bidding their seventh Davis Cup title and the first since 2019 in front of home fans at the Palacio de Deportes José Martin Carpena in Malaga.
Tennis fans will bid farewell to 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, who will play the final professional tournament on home soil. The Spanish team will also feature Carlos Alcaraz, who won two Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and the Olympic silver medal in Paris last summer, Roberto Bautista Agut, winner at the ATP 250 in Antwerp last October, and Marcel Granollers, who is ranked third in the world doubles ranking.
“I am not here for retiring. I am here to try to help the team. Then it’s of course going my last week on the professional tour, but at the end we are in a team competition.Finishing my career in Spain at the Davis Cup is a special feeling and an opportunity to thank my home fans. The feeling to play for your country, to play for your teammates, and if you have a good relationship with the team, something that happened I think 99% of the times of our careers, with David Ferrer, and now with all this team. I have been 20 years of playing this competition. I went through a lot of different generations. The big success in our country is that we have had a familiar relationship. That helps to have the feeling that at the end when you win, everyone wins. When you lose, everybody loses”, said Nadal.
Alcaraz reached the quarter finals with Nadal in the doubles at the Olympic Games in Paris.
“For me, it was a dream to play with Rafa, and the doubles was very special. To represent Spain in the Davis Cup, to be with him, to share many moments with him in his last time on court, it’s going to be special for me and everybody”, said Alcaraz.
The Spanish team will take on the Netherlands in the quarter finals.
The Dutch team will be formed by Tallon Griekspoor, Botic Van de Zandschulp, doubles specialist Wesley Koolhof and Jesper de Jong. Last September Koolhof and Van de Zandschulp beat Italian doubles specialists Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 in the doubles match to clinch a needed win to help the Dutch team reach the quarter final.
“It’s Davis Cup. Anything can happen. We have been here for three years in a row. That’s the fourth appearance in five years”, said Dutch captain Paul Haaruis.
Nadal and Koolhof will make their last apperanace at the Davis Cup as they are planning to retire at the end of the season.
Nadal is more likely to play in the doubles
Spain could face a potential semifinal clash against either Canada or Germany.
Canada will miss Felix Auger Aliassime, while Alexander Zverev will not play for the German team, who features Nitto ATP Finals champions Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz, Jan-Lennard Struff, Yannick Hanfmann and Daniel Altmeier. The Canadian team features Denis Shapovalov, who won the ATP 250 title in Belgrade earlier this month. Gabriel Diallo, Milos Raonic, Alexis Galarneau and Vasek Pospisil.
Italy will start their defense against Argentina in the quarter final. The Italian team will play against Argentina on Thursday. Jannik Sinner, Matteo Berrettni, Olympic bronze medallist Lorenzo Musetti and the doubles team formed by Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli will be part of a very stron Italian team, who will be bidding for a back-to-back Davis Cup title.
Sinner led the Italian team to the win the Davis Cup title in Malaga last year. The world number 1 player won two Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and at the US Open, the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, three Masters 1000 titles in Miami, Cincinnati and Shanghai, and two ATP 500 titles in Rotterdam and Halle. Sinner has become the first player to win the ATP Finals without losing a set since Ivan Lendl in 1986. The Italian player became just the third player in the Open Era to earn his first two Grand Slam titles in the same season. The last player who achieved the feat was Guillermo Vilas, who won Roland Garros and the US Open in 1977.
Sinner made history by becoming the first Italian player to triumph at the Nitto ATP Finals. He is now aiming to defend the Davis Cup with the Italian team.
“The win in Turin means so much to me. Playing here in front of this crowd is incredible”, said Sinner after his win at the ATP Finals in Turin.
Sinner has made significant improvement on his serve thanks to the advice of his coaches Simone Vagnozzi and Darrell Cahill.
“I have improved a lot in my movement, but also in my physical condition. I also feel like I have gotten better on my serve, especially my second serve. I would say those three things are the one I have improved the most. We all have doubts sometimes . Even before I won a Grand Slam, I had doubts that I could win one. Then once you have one Slam, in your mind, you know you can do it, but you still have to do work a lot for that. If you want to hold the position, you have to improve”, said Sinner.
Argentina will feature doubles specialists Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzales, Sebastian Baez and Francisco Cerundolo.
The winner of the match between Italy and Argentina will face either the USA or Australia.
The US team features the best singles line-up. Their best singles players Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul are in the top 12. The other player to watch is Ben Shelton, who reached the final at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.
Sinner could face Fritz in a potential semifinal showdown in what could be a re-match of the finals of the US Open and the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.
The Australian team features Toronto Masters 1000 champion Alexei Popyrin, Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell, who reached the semifinals in the doubles tournament at the ATP Finals in Turin, and another doubles spccialist Matthew Ebden.
