Marius Copil, Horia Tecau and Florin Mergea lead Romania against Zimbabwe
After the second Masters 1000 tournament in Miami, the ATP Tour will take a week off, leaving the players to prepare for clay and switching the action to four Davis Cup Group II ties (the other eight will take place in September) all over the world between April 5-6. In the Europe/Africa zone, Romania will host Zimbabwe at Sala Polivalenta in Piatra Neamt on an indoor hard court, facing each other for the first since 2000 when Romania scored an away win in Harare thanks to Andrei Pavel who delivered all three points for the European squad.
The Romanian Davis Cup captain Gabriel Trifu has gathered the strongest possible team for the upcoming clash, with Marius Copil, Dragos Dima, Horia Tecau, Florin Mergea, Filip Jianu and Edris Fetisleam ready to fight in the national jersey, standing as the favorites in front of home fans. Twenty years ago, Romania had played in the World Group almost every year, reaching the quarter-final in 2005 and staying in the elite until 2011 before spending the next six years in Group I. Romania lost all three ties in 2017 to experience a relegation into Group II where they defeated Luxembourg and Morocco last year before losing to Poland despite a 2-1 lead after the doubles match.
The Romanians will try to make a winning start in 2019 as well against the African opponent that has no players ranked in the top-400. Marius Copil will lead the home squad in his ninth Davis Cup season in a row, winning 18 rubbers so far and 15 out of 22 in singles. Dragos Dima will have the opportunity to add more Davis Cup wins to his tally while the doubles point should be safely in the hands of Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau who had played together for the first time back in 2003 and won ten of 13 Davis Cup doubles rubbers when sharing the court. In the other ties that weekend, El Salvador will host Peru, Philipinnes travels to Thailand while Morocco plays Lithuania in Marrakech.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2uwDapy
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