STUART FRASER
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TALKING BALLS 050 – FRIDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER 2011
Davis Cup back at Braehead
It is the place where, more than five years ago, Andy Murray and
Novak Djokovic, hailed at the time as stars in the making, lined up
on opposing teams in a Davis Cup Euro/Africa Zone Group One 2nd
Round tie between Great Britain and Serbia & Montenegro.
It was Djokovic who ended the weekend at the Braehead Arena as the
one celebrating as it was his side who clinched a 3-2 victory.
Since then, their respective countries have went on very
different paths in tennis’s international team competition, which
could not be highlighted more by the positions in which the two
players find themselves this weekend.
Djokovic, on the back of beating Rafael Nadal in the final of the US
Open on Monday night, is a part of the Serbia team in Belgrade
aiming to continue the defence of their title when they face
Argentina in the World Group semi-final.
The world No.1 won’t be in action today due to injury, but is
expected to return should the tie go to a third day.
Murray, on the other hand, finds himself taking on a 27-year-old
unranked law student, Sebo Kiss, as he aims to help drag his country
out of Group Two, the third tier of the competition, in their
promotion play-off against Hungary.
The Scot will, of course, be delighted to be back in his own
homeland, but he will surely have a feeling of envy as he sees his
good friend aim to help Serbia to another Davis Cup victory.
There is no doubt that Djokovic’s success in the competition
last year has played a massive part in his 2011 match record of 64
wins and two losses so far.
Despite the level of opponent Murray will come up against this
weekend, the world No.4 will treat it just the same as any other
competitive match.
Granted though, he will only have to play at, most, 50 per cent to
get two points for his country.
The level of Murray’s opponent today will bring back memories for
the Braehead crowd of Murray’s 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 victory against Laurent
Bram, of Luxembourg, in July.
Bram, like Kiss, was also unranked and only managed to win a
total of fifteen points in a match which lasted just 52 minutes.
Murray warned us yesterday not to expect a similar scoreline today
as he is still feeling the effects of a gruelling fortnight in New
York. However, the fact
that Kiss has played just four ITF events since his last Davis Cup
appearance in July 2008 means that we can’t help dreaming of another
“triple bagel”. Kiss reached a career high ranking of 531 in September 2005 before he decided to give up full-time tennis and study law at university. The Hungarian’s final exam is due in November, but he has left the books at home this week to fully concentrate on his tennis.
Despite his lack of top level experience, Murray is not the first
top player Kiss has faced in his career.
He once took on Djokovic in qualifying of a Challenger in
Budapest in May 2004 and put up a respectable performance before
losing 7-6, 6-4, albeit the Serb was only a fledgling 16-year-old at
the time.
While his match today is a write-off, the Hungarians may be hopeful
of taking an early lead in the tie when their No.1, Attila Balazs,
takes on James Ward in the first match of the day at 3pm.
Balazs is currently ranked 262, although he reached as high as
No.153 in November last year, and is a regular on the Challenger
circuit. Ward will
understandably be the favourite off the back of some good
performances this summer which gives him a current ranking of
No.149. But as we have
often seen in past Davis Cup ties, form and rankings can go out of
the window.
Whatever happens in today’s matches, tomorrow’s doubles rubber will
be live. Off the back
of consecutive grand slam quarter-final runs at Flushing Meadows and
Wimbledon, Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins will be confident of a
victory against Balazs and Kornel Bardoczky, who is the only other
player in the Hungary team with a world ranking of No.880.
There is a clear gulf between the two countries, particularly
highlighted by the difference in finances.
The LTA have an annual budget of £65million, whereas,
according to Hungarian captain Miklos Hornok, his federation only
has a maximum of £500,000 to spend each year, ironically the same as
the food budget of the LTA’s National Tennis Centre in Roehampton in
2009.
Money doesn’t always guarantee success though, as we saw when
Lithuania beat Great Britain in 2010.
It is Murray’s appearance at Braehead this weekend which will
guarantee a British victory and promotion to Group One.
Hope for the future
Oliver Golding’s victory in the Boys’ Singles at the US Open was
indeed a cause for celebration.
There has been much chatter about the 17-year-old Brit following
some good showings on the junior circuit in recent years.
And his win at Flushing Meadows serves to further illustrate
the talent that he has.
He has joined an illustrious list of winners of the US Open Boys’
title which includes Pat Cash, Stefan Edberg, Andy Roddick and a
certain Andy Murray who won the event in 2004.
There are a number of other recognisable names on the winners’ list
including Bernard Tomic and Grigor Dimitrov.
But whilst winning the junior US Open title is generally a
sign of a future top 100 player, it is by no means a guarantee.
23-year-old Dusan Lojda, the 2006 champion, has, as of yet, only
reached a career high world ranking of No.161.
No doubt there would have been high hopes for American Brian
Dunn when he won the event in 1992, but No.153 was the highest
ranking which he achieved.
The truth is that the journey is just beginning for Golding.
Questions such as ‘will Golding be as good as or even better
than Murray?’ are pointless at this stage.
There is no way of telling as it is a player’s transition
from the junior to the senior circuit which is the most critical
stage of his career.
In general, it was an impressive showing from the British juniors
with George Morgan and Kyle Edmund also reaching the semi-finals in
New York. It does,
understandably, create a bit of excitement and hope in a country
which has been starved of top 100 players.
The LTA will be rejoicing after receiving a battering in recent
years for the lack of talent coming through.
But, again, the critical stage is yet to come for these
players as they progress into the senior game.
Remember the case of Martin Lee, a former world junior No.1 who was
the subject of much hope for the future during the late 90s.
In the end, Lee only managed a career high ranking of No.94,
well below what many were estimating.
It is a good sign that Britain currently has a number of promising
juniors. But when some
of these players begin to do decent things on the senior circuit,
only then can we be fully satisfied that the LTA is indeed on the
right track. |