With less than a fortnight to go before Timothy Henman's last competitive match I thought I'd post the latest team news...

Mario Ancic and Ivo Karlovic have not been included in Croatia's squad to face Great Britain in the Davis Cup World Group qualifier at Wimbledon.
Ancic has a shoulder injury while big-serving Karlovic has not played for his country since 2005 because of a dispute with his federation.

Ivan Ljubicic leads the squad, which also includes Marin Cilic, Roko Karanusic and Lovro Zovko.

The British team consist of the Murray brothers, Henman and Jamie Baker.

My guess is that the Friday rubbers will be Cilic vs Murray and Henman vs Ljubicic?

I see Cilic as the greater threat of the Croatians which is why I think Murray would play him first.

What does everybody else think?

thank god mario and ivo are out. is ivo refusing to play or what? i understand he has a poor relationship with their federation.

ljubo is not the player he was a year or two ago. there are clear signs of decline and he hates playing on grass. indeed he begged tim jokingly not to play the tie on grass.

cilic is a big danger man but in a way it offers tim one last chance to get revenge for a painful defeat. he did it to tursy at the USO and he can do it to cilic too.

COME ON TIMMY!!

I cringed when I read the name Cilic - but this is Tims swansong - and no bugger is going to take it away from him - going out on a high is our man :D

and not before I see him this Saturday :chesire:

Yep, Karlovic is still on bad terms with his federation.

You better take a first aid kit with you just in case Henman gets injured- want him on top form for when I see him at the Davis Cup!

do you know why that is? what did he (or they) do?

This from the timesonline but I've read similar reports elsewhere:

Croatia will be without Ivo Karlovic for their Davis Cup meeting with Great Britain at Wimbledon after the player pulled out because of a dispute with the team's coach.

The 2005 champions are scheduled to play Britain in the World Group play-offs from September 21-23, a tie which will see Tim Henman play his last competitive match before retirement.

“I’m not going to London, sorry,” Karlovic wrote in a text message to Goran Prpic, the Croatia coach. Marina Mihelic, the executive manager of the Croatian Tennis Federation, said on Tuesday that Karlovic asked not to be included in the team in an e-mail sent to her Monday.

Karlovic, who is currently ranked 30th in the world, has skipped Davis Cup weekends in the past, reportedly complaining that the money is not fairly distributed among the players.

Instead, Ivan Ljubicic, Marin Cilic, Roko Karanusic and Lovro Zovko will take on Henman, Andy Murray, Jamie Murray and Jamie Baker.

Mario Ancic, who is still recovering from a shoulder injury that forced him to withdraw from the US Open last month, volunteered to replace Karlovic, but Prpic said it was too risky.

“I would never forgive myself if his state worsens because of the match in London,” he said. “I know for his enormous wish to help us, but it’s better not to push it.”

Hey Pebs, are you going to Turbo Tennis?

If so: you jammy cow! :D

If you haven't already, there's still time to enter the comp!

:D :D :D <---- that answer your question hun? ;)

you can talk, you're off to Davis Cup - I would love to be going to that!

:unsure: I think they might tell me off if I run on court... especially when I just throw the first aid kit at Tim and tell him to sort himself out while I go on to leap on James 'gorgeous' Blake :devil:

(note I assumed that SB would already have dragged off Goran :P )

Looks like Cilic is hitting form at the right (or wrong for GB!) time, he's beaten Davydenko today 6-3 6-4 in Beijing.

Hopefully he and Ljubicic can do really well in Beijing meaning that they'll have less than a week to fly to London and get used to the grass! :unsure:

Call me a cynic, but what happens if it rains all weekend when the tie is due to take place? Wimbledon doesn't have a roof yet!

Sssh! I'm hoping that won't happen! :unsure:

From the BBC:

On the DC website, it says, however, that Murray plays first, followed by Henman. I personally would tend to trust the DC site more ...

BBC Tennis Reporting may not be accurate shocker!!!!!

:giggle:

I know, what a let-down ... :P

The weather forecast still shows light showers for Friday. :( :ban:

Although perhaps only in the evening ... so maybe it will all work out ... :pray:

Oh, i really hope so - it'd be sooo gutting if Tim's final match wasn't at Wimby :(

Go GB!!!!! :yahoo:

Well they have announced the matches

Tim v Ljubicic and Murray v Cillic Friday, then reversing that for Sunday. And the alramign thing is that they have Andy scheduled to play the doubles too :blink: Now he's had an injury and I'm nto sure that is a wise move. In fact for him, playign Dc is not a wise move at all, he's being very selfless doing it IMO as he'll surely end up missing matches afterwards. Tim says he will play all 3 days if required, but then can he? And anyway he has nothing to play afterwards so if he can, then mayeb he should.

Anyway I am worried about this tie, Cillic is worrying me as he beat Tim this year and recently Davydenko. He's young, fit and fearless. Ljubicic might nto be best on grass but he has led his team to glory and our team is hardly up to scratch either. Thank god we have Jamie in the doubles, but I don't fancy hsi chances if he has to play with Baker, and the other pair might well be best of restign that day. It's quite a disgrace that we can't even rustle up a doubles player. Then of course it might go indoors and Ljubi will enjoy that. If they have weather problems the fans will eb robbed as it will drag on into next week if they have to up sticks on the day and move courts. It'll take the fans ages to travel adn get seeted. If there is is bad weather forcast I think they should just say let's do it indoors rather than make ticketholders lose out.

Quite dissappointed that both Ancic and Karlovic are not playing, would have loved to have seen those two in action. :(

The BBC have now sneakily changed "opening singles match" to "opening singles matches" in their article. :rolleyes: