7. How will the teams without their leaders fare?
It is always tough for nations, which don’t have the biggest player base, when their best players refuse their Davis Cup invitation. This will be the case for several nations this weekend. Some, like France or Switzerland are plagued by injuries. Others, like Slovakia or Poland, were rejected by their top players either due to not wanting to travel or scheduling conflicts. Even though France is missing both Tsonga and Monfils, they are still favorites in their tie against Croatia, with Gasquet and Pouille playing singles, and the No. 1 doubles team in the world, Herbert and Mahut.
There are a lot more absences in the World Group Play-offs. Switzerland is missing both Federer, Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli, pitting them as the underdog in their tie against Uzbekistan. The Swiss will be led by Henri Laaksonen, and the trio of Bossel, Bellier and Niklas. Slovakia will play in Sydney without Martin Klizan nor Lukas Lacko, who would be a great addition on grass. With this, Kyrgios and Tomic will face off against Andrej Martin and Jozef Kovalik, who are more than a hundred spots below them in the rankings. If it comes to it, Norbert Gombos might replace Martin in the fourth rubber, as his game is more suited for the surface.
In Germany – Poland, both sides are missing their best players. Germany without Sascha Zverev and Philipp Kohlschreiber are putting Florian Mayer and Jan-Lennard Struff in their singles rubbers. For the doubles, they have several options. Struff and Masur recently won a challenger title together, but Brands and Mayer are also not useless in doubles. Polish No. 1 Jerzy Janowicz, who won a challenger last week in Genova decided to play in another challenger on clay in Szczecin, and is already in the second round. Despite that, Poland put together a solid team of youth and experience, which could challenge Germany. Kamil Majchrzak and Hurbert Hurkacz will play the singles, while the very solid team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski will be the doubles favorites.
Canada is missing Milos Raonic and doubles specialist Daniel Nestor, but despite that are the favorites against Chile. They are playing on hard courts, and have Vasek Pospisil and Frank Dancevic in the singles, with the possibility of Denis Shapovalov making his debut.
