Davis Cup Week 1 Results

The first week for Davis Cup 2011 is in the books, and it was a good one filled with some surprises, quite a few 5-set matches, three live 5th rubbers, and all around good tennis with the team atmosphere.  Here's my recap of the weekend's action (scores do not include dead rubbers):

World Group
SRB 3 IND 1 - The Serbs ended up playing without Djokovic and got a great tie from Viktor Troicki.  Somdev Devvarman made this interesting by beating Tipsarevic and we are left to wonder what it would have been like with Bhupathi/Paes playing.
SWE 3 RUS 0 - This was a bit of a surprise to see this Johansson guy go out and knock off Gabashvili to give the tie to Sweden.
KAZ 3 CZE 2 - The real stunner of the weekend, Andrey Golubev takes down Tomas Berdych to send the Kazakhs to the quarterfinals in their world group debut, despite trailing 2-1 on the road.  Mikhail Kukushkin beat Jan Hajek in the 5th rubber.  Hajek had taken Golubev to 5 sets earlier but oh how the Czechs miss Stepanek.
ARG 3 ROU 0 - A blowout as expected, but the question is, why did Nalbandian play when he was so banged up?
USA 3 CHI 1 - The Chileans added a little drama when Paul Capdeville refused to be broken against John Isner and won 4 tiebreaks and 6-4, but Roddick and the Bryans were too good.
ESP 3 BEL 0 - Is a comment even necessary, Spain goes 9-0 in sets.
GER 3 CRO 2 - I knew this would be a barnburner coming in and it didn't disappoint.  Cilic coming from behind to beat Mayer, Kohlschreiber over Dodig in 5, then the doubles going 5 before Petzschner/Kas came through, Cilic then keeping his team in the mix by disposing of Kohlschreiber, and finally Petzschner stepping to knock off Karlovic.  We are left to second guess Dodig not getting the call in the 5th rubber.
FRA 3 AUT 2 - This really came down to Melzer laying an egg against Jeremy Chardy and putting the Austrians in a hole they couldn't recover from with only one player ranked inside the top 100.  But give it up from Chardy who won 2 rubbers after not playing a match since last October.  He beat Martin Fischer in the live 5th rubber.

The matchups for the semifinals to be played the week after Wimbledon:
-SRB at SWE:  Can Johansson beat Troicki?
-KAZ at ARG:  Can't count out the Kazakhs after they beat CZE but ARG will be deeper.
-ESP at USA:  This should be a good one on probably the fastest court in the country.
-FRA at GER:  France will probably be too strong especially if Monfils and/or Tsonga can play.

Now to some the other action from around the world:

Europe/Africa Zonal Group I
ISR 3 POL 0 - Israel qualifies for the world group playoffs to try and immediately return to the WG.
SLO 3 FIN 2 - The Slovenes won the critical doubles and a live 5th rubber
NED 3 UKR 2 - This tie didn't disappoint though Dolgopolov didn't show up.  Still a live 5th rubber and Haase beat Marchenko
POR 4 SVK 1

Next round:  Promotion - SLO at ITA, NED at RSA, POR at SUI

Americas Zonal Group I
CAN 4 MEX 1 - Raonic carries the Canadians through
URU 3 COL 1 - I'm a little surprised as Cuevas bring Uruguay through

Next round:  CAN at ECU, URU at BRA

Asia/Pacific Zonal Group I
CHN 3 TPE 2 - China wins the doubles to work around Lu
JPN 3 PHI 1
UZB 3 NZL 2 - This really was a sweep

Next round:  AUS at CHN, UZB at JPN

Note:  Relegation tie details will not be known until after the promotional rounds due to the way the byes work.

Europe/Africa Zonal Group II
GBR 4 TUN 1 - The British finally win a tie and have hope of getting back to Group I
LUX 3 IRL 1
BLR 4 BUL 1
HUN 5 CYP 0 - The Cypriots hurting without Baghdatis
BIH 3 MAR 2
EST 3 LTU 2 - The Estonians win the doubles to work around Berankis
DEN 3 MON 2
LAT 4 GRE 1

Next round:  Promotion semis - LUX at GBR, BLR at HUN, EST at BIH, LAT at DEN;  Relegation round - TUN vs IRL, BUL vs CYP, MAR vs LTU, MON vs GRE

Amercias Zonal Group II
PER 5 ATO 0
DOM 5 ESA 0
PAR 4 PUR 1
VEN 3 HAI 2

Next round:  Promotion semis - PER vs DOM, PAR vs VEN;  Relegation round - ATO vs ESA, PUR vs HAI

Asia/Pacific Zonal Group II
KOR 4 SYR 1
PAK 3 HKG 1
INA 3 IRI 2
THA 5 PAC 0

Next round:  Promotion semis - KOR vs PAK, INA vs THA;  Relegation round - SYR vs HKG, IRI vs PAC

Note:  Daviscup.com hasn't released where the tie will be played for all the next rounds yet in group II.  These 3 letter codes are all the IOC codes, some are a little strange so if you can't figure them out, google or drop me a comment.  I hope I haven't bored you with are this lower group stuff, but I think it's kind of cool even if I don't know anyone from most of the countries.

Finally, I'll use this space to pump the two champions from the WTA events:  Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Jelena Dokic.

The Russian won her 3rd career title in Monterrey by defeating the top seed Jelena Jankovic in three sets.  It was actually a successful title defence for "Nastia".  However, another solid result for JJ and she shouldn't be an easy out in Indian Wells or Miamil.

The naturalized Australian won her 6th career title in Kuala Lumpur, defeating Lucie Safarova in the final.  It was Dokic's first win since...get this, 2002.  She saved 2 match points in the 2nd set tiebreak.  Also of note, Dinara Safina won the doubles in KL, maybe this can give her confidence for better singles results as she tries to get back up the rankings.

That's all for today.  I will try and post a IW preview in a couple days.