Own land

The Davis Cup quarter-finals kick off on the Luzhniki stadium

On Friday in Moscow at the Small Sports Arena of Luzhniki in the quarterfinal match of the Davis Cup, the Russian team will compete with the French team. In the past six matches, Soviet and Russian tennis players won four times and the French twice. It is noteworthy that for the third time the teams will play each other in the quarterfinals. In 2005 and 2006 - in Moscow and Paris - the team of Russian captain Shamil Tarpishchev won victories.

For the upcoming match, the Russian side has fielded the strongest four tennis players it currently has - Igor Andreev, Nikolay Davydenko, Marat Safin and Mikhail Youzhny. French captain Guy Forget brought Richard Gasquet, Sebastian Grosjean, Arnaud Clément, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Michel Llaudre to the Russian capital. Compared to last year's match, both teams underwent changes in their lineups. The injured Dmitry Tursunov was replaced by Igor Andreev, who brilliantly played the opening cup match in Chile, where in the last, fifth meeting he brought the Russian team a decisive point. As for Tursunov, who, although he went to Chile, never took to the court, then, according to Russian captain Shamil Tarpishchev, the tennis player still has not cured the injury to his left wrist. “It is possible that Dmitry will need surgery, but this will not be decided earlier than in two months,” Tarpischev explained.

The French again resorted to the help of Paul-Henri Mathieu, who missed the previous match. It is interesting that it was Mathieu who twice in the final of 2002 and in the quarterfinals of 2005 lost decisive matches to Yuzhny and Andreev, respectively. However, if you believe Guy Forget, Mathieu will become the number two of the French national team. The captain did not explain this non-standard decision, but it seems that it was dictated by the desire to help the athlete regain his former self-confidence.

The quarterfinals in Moscow will be held on clay. “The coating is quite hard. Land of domestic production. We have succeeded in this because this is not the first time we have used it. If we take into account the results of recent matches, then we don’t care what to play on. In addition, all the guys are starting the summer season, and after the Davis Cup they will play on clay, so we considered that our choice was the most appropriate,” said the Russian captain. When asked whether Marat Safin was satisfied with the current coating, Tarpishchev jokingly remarked: “When was Marat satisfied with it? To please all tennis players is an almost impossible task. Andreev needs a high-bounce court, Safin has other requirements. So we tried to choose something in between.”

According to Tarpishchev, both teams have approximately equal chances, since both teams have equal compositions and no clear leaders. Captain Guy Forget has a different point of view. “I can say that the match will be very difficult. And there is no magic or wizardry in the fact that we lost to the Russians in previous meetings. The Russian team is rated higher than our team. And in this home match she is the undisputed favorite,” says the French captain.

Guy Forget also noted that the arena at Luzhniki, where the quarterfinals will be held, was liked by all his tennis players. “I can congratulate the Russian team for having so many good sports facilities,” Forget said. Tarpishchev clarified that the choice of Luzhniki was dictated by the fact that within a month it would be necessary to hold two matches in a row - the men's Davis Cup and the women's Fed Cup. “We needed not only a place to hold competitions, but also training arenas. Luzhniki provided us with such an opportunity. Although various options were considered, including the new Palace on Khodynka. But in the end it was decided that it was not worth transporting soil from place to place and re-laying the court. The Moscow government paid one hundred percent of all expenses for holding both match meetings,” Tarpishchev clarified.

If the Russians win over the French, our team's next opponent will be the winner of the Germany-Belgium pair. However, according to Marat Safin, you should not get ahead of yourself. “If such thoughts begin to creep into your head, then in 99 cases out of 100 it turns into defeat. I'm looking forward to this match. Moreover, these are the only competitions where I still win,” he said.

Olga ERMOLINA