Zimbabwe squad feels ready to challenge Romania in Davis Cup
After the second Masters 1000 tournament in Miami, the ATP Tour will take a week off and the action will shortly switch towards 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.
Zimbabwe had a stable Davis Cup run in the last two seasons, winning four out of six ties and they will try to grab the first Davis Cup triumph on the European soil since 1997 when they took down Great Britain in London. The captain Gwinyai Tongoona has called Takanyi Garanganga, brothers Courtney and Benjamin Lock and the youngster Mehluli Sibanda, hoping for a miracle against the host team. After a long trip, the Zimbabwe squad started to train on Monday and Benjamin Lock is confident about their chances on an indoor hard court, ready to give his best with the rest of the team and to seek the doubles point with his brother, already reaching three Futures finals this season.
“Everyone is pretty excited and we are all in good spirits to be here. After taking a day to recover yesterday (Sunday) following a long journey to the city which is hosting the tie, we had our first full training at the match venue and it’s a nice venue,” Benjamin said. “The training went very well and I like where the team is at this stage in terms of chemistry and morale. Playing wise, everyone is hitting the ball great and pretty sharp and we are delighted with how everything is going so far. In terms of the conditions, the court is pretty much on the quicker side which suits us and I think we’re all very comfortable playing on indoor hard courts and its one of our stronger surfaces. So, everything is going great and we’re looking forward to a few days of practice before the tie.”
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2TViqC3
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