Well, most of the tennis is done for the year, but we still have the big Davis Cup final to keep an eye on this weekend. How do you see this one playing out? I think Russia will take it. They may even clinch it by the time the doubles match is over, but I think the individual matches will be pretty close.

I hope the russians win :)

By the way I put a thread down on this just a few minutes before roflmao

Yeah i want Russia to win, purely because Safin can claim to have won a title this year roflmao

I want Russia to win as well :D

Mainly as I don't like Nalby :devil:

Go Russia! :yahoo:

I hope Safin plays well though too and it stands him in good stead for a renaissance next season :)

Russia are the favourites, but Nalbandian seems to thrive on the pressure of almost single-handedly carrying the Argentinian hopes. Can Nalbandian win it for the Argentinians? In a word, yes, but I think the most likely outcome is a narrow win for the Russians.

Hmmm I kinda forgot about this event - it does seem a long time since the season ended (though it's only been a few weeks) that it has to some extent been forgotten about.

As for the result - well it's hard to look past a Russian victory unless Nalbandian can pull of something very special.

Here's my list of pros and cons for each team...

In Russia's favour...

They're at home
All their team can perform well on the surface they've selected
Good team spirit
The form of Davydenko and Youzhny
Argentina will be relying a lot on Nalbandian

In Argentina's favour...

The team is quite happy with the surface
Nalbandian performs well on the surface
Davydenko may be a bit jaded after his long season
Youzhny, Safin and Tursunov are very inconsistent
The Russians don't tend to do so well at doubles

Put simply, Nalbandian has to win his 1st singles rubber - otherwise its all over...

In Russia's favour:

If Safin is on, they may as well hand over the DC trophy :D

Maybe they can get Mirnyi to play for them. He's close enough to Russian. :)

This is tomorrow's Davis Cup line-up folks...

Davydenko v Chela
Safin v Nalbandian

Would you believe, Chela leads Davydenko 5-0 in their head-to-head!!

Not for much longer I fear ;)

MrI has set up a mini-predictions contest for the DC final n the locker room section of the board.. :)

Hopefully a few CC folk will post their predictions ?

we'll see... Davydenko isn't the best under pressure

Safin vs. Nalbandian could be some match!

Sadly it ended up one sided

Well done to Russia, and full credit to Nalbandian and Acasuso for pushing them hard. In the end, it was pretty tight - Safin sneaking through on a 4th set tie-break against Acasuso. I'm happy for the Russians - they deserve to win...but hopefully the Argentinians will take heart from pushing their opponents so hard.

Nalbandian performed very well in 2 out of 3 matches - shame he couldn't perform so well in the doubles, as the doubles was a bit of a non-event...

Currently watching the highlights of it in my office.The doubles looks extremely exciting.Theres something about Davis Cup And Fed Cup doubles.Fielding non doubles specialists in the doubles rubber generates such entertainment and great rallies!

Does anyone have a link to the highlights on youtube ?.
I didn't really get coverage of it. :(