‘This will be one of the top teams in the world’ – tennis Commentator Nick McCarvel’s exclusive Davis Cup preview
Looking ahead to an action-packed week of Davis Cup action in Glasgow and across Europe, we caught up with leading tennis Commentator and Reporter Nick McCarvel to get his thoughts on this year’s competition, the British team, their opponents and his top teams to watch out for.
Reigniting the Davis Cup experience
It’s cool that we’ve found a format that reaches a middle ground on the home and away ties. What people love about the Davis Cup is the passion – from the fans and the teams – and I think the British team have shown that over the years, especially in the last decade in the push for that 2015 title.
Obviously, we’ve got the Finals and the way they changed the format of that a few years ago in 2019, but I think now it’s really powerful for people to have the Davis Cup experience in these different groups in different countries, before they get there.
The Brits could be front runners
Group D has a lot of excitement around it. It will be buzzing because of the GB fans, and I think when you look at Cam Norrie, Dan Evans, Andy Murray, Joe Salisbury and then you add Neal Skupski to that mix – this will be one of the top teams in the world.
I think that GB should back their chances, not only in Group D but the Davis Cup as a whole.
Where we now see Andy in his career I think this competition has a lot of importance to him. I think he has the opportunity to engage in events like this where he’s surrounded by his teammates and can feed off that experience from 2015, which was just one of the craziest tennis events in the last couple of decades.
Understanding the work that is put in and the level that’s there, to have Andy Dan, Cam, Joe and Neal in there, is a really special team. To have it in front of the Glasgow crowd – who are obviously going to be very excited for Andy – hopefully they can come and enjoy it and can send the Brits into the latter stage of the competition.
Tough challenges await in Group D
I don’t know if I would call GB the outright favourites though. With the Americans it will be interesting to see how deep Frances Tiafoe goes at the US Open and whether that impacts his ability to go again in Glasgow only a few days later.
When you look at Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Jack Sock and then you throw Rajeev Ram into the mix as well – that’s a lot of firepower, but I know the home crowd will be really big for the British team.
When you look at Kazakhstan and the Netherlands, there’s just a few unknown quantities. Alexander Bublik has proved himself as one of the best, but he goes in fits and spurts – it’s a bit of a roller-coaster.
The Dutch team, I think Botic van de Zandschlup and Tim van Rijthoven have both had great successes themselves coming from nowhere. It will be interesting for the Netherlands as those guys play very differently to everyone else so there will be a lot of attacking the net and serve and volley. Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop are two of the best doubles players in the world and Tallon Griekspoor has had a good season too.
I don’t think there’s any team to sleep on in this group, but if I was ranking them, I’d go:
- Great Britain
- USA
- Netherlands
- Kazakhstan
That said I think it’s going to be a really exciting group and I think finding the right line-up will be the real challenge of it.
This year’s competition is wide open
It will come down to who is able to show up for their teams. You look at a team like Italy in Group A and obviously they will have home support in Bologna to help spur them into the Finals. I know someone like Matteo Berrettini was disappointed to go out of the US Open like he did and on the other side, we could be looking at a breakout slam for Jannik Sinner.
You also look at someone like Carlos Alcaraz and what he’s done over the last 12 months – how does he handle this setting and leading that Spanish team?
You also can’t ignore Novak Djokovic and the Serbian team, if they get through to the Finals and he joins them there. It’s hard to look past the power of Djokovic not only on the singles court but doubles as well.
Maybe someone like an Argentina could surprise – players like Diego Schwartzman, Francisco Cerundolo and Sebastian Baez have all had some great successes and perhaps are going under the radar.
Then also throw in Croatia, the top seeds, with Marin Cilic, Borna Coric, Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic – that’s a very strong quartet in and of itself.