Davis Cup 2005 (WG playoff vs SWE in India!)

[TheSwedishTennisGuru]

qvhvhg, here are the answers to your questions:

If Söderling would have been fit to play, Björkman might very well still have played singles. Four factors would speak to Björkman's favor:
* His favorite surface is grass.
* He is in great shape right now, having played really well at the US Open despite losing in the 2nd round.
* He is a team player who usually plays great tennis in the Davis Cup.
* He is experienced and can handle the pressure of having a lot of people wanting the other player to win.

To Söderling's advantage would be that he is a better overall singles player. He has also showed that he can play well on grass but would probably be more vulnerable to a lot of people screaming against him. It feels like it would come down to the practise sessions right before the tie to decide if Söderling or Björkman would play.

As far as the surface, directly after the draw was made the assistant Davis Cup captain Joakim Nyström said that: "They usually play on grass and I almost take for granted that they chose that surface."

However, the head of information Johan Porsborn also wrote that it was "speculated that India might pick the special Indian clay, with different characteristics than the European clay". So we were aware about the possibility of another surface. I don't know if this would have changed things around. The Swedish top players at the moment don't like clay, but this is the case with the Indians as well... However, I can't be sure as I don't have a clue about what this Indian clay plays like.

[jayakris]

I like this article better -- the same info as the one posted above

http://www.newkerala.com/newsdaily.php? ... s&id=24046

Well done, Lee and Harsh!

Beautiful article. That is what we want to see.

GO AND BEAT THE SWEDES!!!

Jay

[jayakris]

However, the head of information Johan Porsborn also wrote that it was "speculated that India might pick the special Indian clay, with different characteristics than the European clay".

Wow! They knew of such an option? .. I don't think anybody in Indian tennis (or the press) thought of that possibility at all, and it was discussed only in one place - right here in this forum. I don't think they read this forum, but I'm impressed at the background work by Sweden.

Everyone in India had assumed from day one that our only option is grass, as we have not used that clay in over 25 years or more for Davis Cup ... Most Indian tennis fans are not even aware these days that we still have a surface that really only we know about!

I still wish we had thrown the cowdung-base clay in Chennai at the Swedes. Oh well. Grass it is - and we can hopefully give them a totally different grass surface than they are used to.

Jay

[BSharma]

However, the head of information Johan Porsborn also wrote that it was "speculated that India might pick the special Indian clay, with different characteristics than the European clay". So we were aware about the possibility of another surface. I don't know if this would have changed things around. The Swedish top players at the moment don't like clay, but this is the case with the Indians as well...

Could Johan Porsborn have gotten the information about the special Indian clay courts from this forum since I did not see it mention in the Indian media to any great length? Sports-India discussed this topic about the Indian clay court versus grass court as soon as the India-Sweden tie was announced, and before India announced the selection of the grass court for the tie.

The Swedish team has always been good on all surfaces (grass, hard and clay), and I wonder what has led to their players no longer not liking the clay court. Has their training method for juniors changed?

Addendum:
Jay and I were thinking of the same thing after reading the message of our Swedish friend.

[nata]

Swedes feel the heat in Delhi!
http://us.rediff.com/sports/2005/sep/19davis.htm

The visiting Swedish Davis Cup team had the first feel of the Indian summer on Monday when their seasoned Andreas Vinciguera suffered dehydration due to the intense heat during the morning practice session.

[arjun2761]

Wow! They knew of such an option? .. I don't think anybody in Indian tennis (or the press) thought of that possibility at all, and it was discussed only in one place - right here in this forum. I don't think they read this forum, but I'm impressed at the background work by Sweden.

Maybe their IT wizard knew the secret word (aka google) and typed in "Indian tennis davis cup"

[BSharma]

Maybe their IT wizard knew the secret word (aka google) and typed in "Indian tennis davis cup"

Bingo!

I typed Indian tennis davis cup at google and the first listing was Jay's tennis web site.

Now, do Swedish people "google" or say "yahoo"?

[jayakris]

That is funny, about google/yahoo.

Shoot .. Seems like they were indeed worried that we would throw Indian clay (or cowdung) at them. It is time we did that to somebody again. I am serious. Our players know how to play on it - see Harsh and Rohan in Chennai early this year. I don't think Prakash has played on it, but if he plays a couple of events in India on that surface, he will get a hang of it. Fast hard courts where you slide - what a concept, eh?

Jay

[gvhvhg]

Well, that is precisley why I asked STG this question! I thought they may have done a little bit of research. All it really take is five minutes to do a little bit of research and find this forum!

Obviously, somebody in the Swedish camp came across our discussion---as it is too specific "they specaulated about the special Indian Clay"

We could learn a thing or two from the Swedes, on and off the court.

Also thanks for your take on Soderling vs. Bjorkman. That is what I ahd felt....Bjorkman is a good and experienced player, especially on the grass.

[TheSwedishTennisGuru]

You are all right! The source was www.tennisindia.org. As I told you before, I usually visit the site to catch the latest notes. However, this time, it was someone else who sent an e-mail to Johan Porsborn with a link to the notes that Jay had written.

They're actually all on the tennis.se web site in their original format: http://www.tennis.se/t2.asp?p=50498&x=1&a=167490

Here's a translation of the introduction:
"By the beginning of June, India has to make a decision about surface and host city for the tie against Sweden. The last time India chose a different surface than grass was in 1979. That time, the match against Australia was played on the special Indian clay at the Madras Gymkhana stadium. According to the knowledgeable Indian tennis follower R.Jayakrishnan, India should consider returning to the same courts in the qualifying match against Sweden the 23-25 September.

Jayakrishnan presented his thoughts at www.tennisindia.org on the 4th of May. Read his analysis below: .......

It could have been Sanjeevi, who lives in Sweden, that wrote to Johan. I just got off the phone talking to Johan and he was going to check his mail box tomorrow to see who it was that sent the info to him. Anyways, we are a few guys in Swedish tennis that are complete "tennis maniacs" and always look around for new information...

[amr090]

Hahahah...thats freaking amazing...talk about covering all your bases. It seems the Swedish Tennis Association is as through as us intense tennis followers. The AITA could learn a thing or two from them as if they had been following the sweidish tennis website ( a link to which i posted around may and the same link STG just posted) they would have known Sweden new of the clay possibility.

[Sandeep]

Jay . You must have leaked half the stuff on Indian Tennis by now . Just kidding.

But this is amazing. Impressed with Swedish tennis

[BSharma]

According to the knowledgeable Indian tennis follower R.Jayakrishnan,....

I guess the Swedish tennis people know the worth of Jay better than some people within the Indian tennis circle.

[gvhvhg]

Yeah seriously. I actually read STG's post as soon as it was posted but I was just speechless for words. Amazing. Good thing I brought this up with you STG!
We would have never known!

a link to which i posted around may and the same link STG just posted

Arun---I also posted a link from there ages ago, the one that had the Nystrom quote about grass. I even joined the forum there, but everything was in Swedish so it was hard to navigate!


Like I said before, we could learn a thing or two from the Swedes both on and off the court!!

Actually Sandeep, Jay's specualtion actually misled the Swedes ...because nobody in their right mind would imagine that the AITA would ignore the feelings of "the knowledgable" R.Jayakrishnan!

[amr090]

By we I hope you mean the AITA, because we te forumers discussed this surface



Oh of course I mean we Indians, more specifically those in power, in this case AITA.---Ashish, gvhvhg, gurvinder