 | « Back to article | Print this article |
World number two Rafael Nadal will be expected to get Spain off to a winning Davis Cup start this weekend after being drawn against Swiss Marco Chiudinelli for Friday's opening singles of the first round tie.
Nadal, playing the 137-ranked Chiudinelli for the first time, will be followed on to the Geneva court by David Ferrer, who has been pitted against Swiss number two Stanislas Wawrinka.
Despite the gap in their rankings, Nadal insisted after Thursday's draw that the opening rubber was not a foregone conclusion, particularly with the Swiss opting for a rarely-used carpet surface aimed at unsettling the clay-preferring Spanish.
"It is a very fast surface and will be very difficult to play on," Nadal said following five days of practice on the vinyl-covered wood-base floor, which is also used at a handful of ATP tournaments.
"I have always said that the Davis Cup organisers should only allow matches to take place on hardcourt, clay or grass, because those are the three main surfaces we use throughout the year," Nadal added.
"It's a bad surface for us and I think it would also be better for the spectators if we were
Wawrinka, who is carrying the weight of Swiss expectations in the absence of world number one Roger Federer, said he had little sympathy for the Spanish team's concerns.
"I think it's clearly better for me to play on this surface against the Spanish guys, and the Davis Cup rules say that the home side choose the surface," Wawrinka said.
"We also play on this surface at the Swiss ATP tournament in Basel so as long as it's in use on the tour I think it's fine to use it for Davis Cup."
With Federer opting out of the competition's opening round to concentrate on his own flourishing career, Wawrinka is set to play the maximum of three rubbers this weekend.
On Saturday, the 21-year-old from Lausanne will pair up with Swiss doubles specialist Yves Allegro against Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez.
He is then due to take on Nadal in Sunday's reverse singles with Chiudinelli facing Ferrer in the final rubber.
