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Guccione to lead off for Australia against Belarus It has been a long time since the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club hosted a tie of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas. In fact it is 13 years since the competition came to this historic facility; back in 1993 when Australia defeated the USA. The records indicate that Australia has not lost a Davis Cup tie for 60 years at Kooyong, which was built in 1926 and hosted it’s first Davis Cup in 1946. This weekend Australia will take on Belarus in the quarterfinals and Max Mirnyi (BLR), who is spearheading Belarus, says it would indeed be an honour to break such a record. The quarterfinal draw is as follows: Chris
Guccione (AUS) v Max Mirnyi (BLR) Mirnyi will have the opportunity to put his nation on that record-breaking path when he plays Chris Guccione (AUS) in the first rubber on Friday. Mirnyi says he is not fussed about playing first and added that after the three days – rather than before - would be a better time to maybe suggest if it was good or not playing first.
For Guccione, it is a whole new experience as this is the first time he will open a Davis Cup tie and it is something that really excites him. He says there is a bit of added pressure but there is so much pressure anyway that it doesn’t matter. “The crowd’s going to be behind you, no matter what, first, second, whatever day, so I’m really looking forward to it,” said Guccione. “I’ve never played Max before, but I’ve seen him play a fair bit. I’m hitting the ball great so I’m feeling pretty confident.” The second singles has Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) taking on Vladimir Voltchkov (BLR) and here too the players are not concerned about when they play, however Hewitt suggested it might have been better for him to play first. “I could have gone first and got us off to a good start and put some pressure on Mirnyi against Gucc in a must-win match, but anyway I’m going to go out there and play my game,” said Hewitt. “Other times I’ve gone out there and played second and done the job, whether we’ve been 1-0 up or 1-0 down. “I still feel there’s pressure on Max in the first match. If Gucc gets off to a good start and puts some pressure on him then it will be nice to go out there 1-0 up, that’s for sure.”
There is a little bit banter going on between Hewitt and Voltchkov. The Belarussian had said that Hewitt doesn’t have one big weapon to hurt his side. The Australian struck back by saying that Voltchkov’s ranking of 457 “doesn’t hurt us”. Voltchkov laughed and complimented Hewitt on “a good answer”. The Australians will have Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley (AUS) in the doubles taking on Mirnyi and Voltchkov and in the reverse singles on day three it will be Hewitt against Mirnyi followed by Guccione against Voltchkov. “It is very physically enduring (playing all three days) and given that everything goes well and Vladimir and I have done it for so many years now, we know what it takes to play three days in a row and what it takes to win so, we believe we have enough physical stamina to go all the way,” said Mirnyi. “We’re here to play good tennis, we are out here to win and we will give it 110%.” Source: www.daviscup.org |