US take on Austria in Davis Cup defence

PARIS—The United States have an unchanged team at their disposal as they open up the defence of their Davis Cup crown with an away tie to Austria on Friday. World top tenners Andy Roddick and James Blake will once again play the singles while the top doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan complete a formidable lineup.
The Americans defeated Russia 4-1 at Portland, Oregon last December for their first victory in the premier team tennis event since 1995 and will be in confident mood going into Vienna. The Austrians, however, have a strong trio of players in Jurgen Melzer, Julian Knowle and Stefan Koubek and they will be looking to get a strong boost from a packed crowd at the Vienna Hallenstadion.
Russian’s hopes at home to rising Serbia and Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic took a heavy blow with the news on Thursday that Marat Safin would be unavailable due to a leg injury.
Key to Russian Davis Cup success over the last few years, Safin will likely be replaced by Igor Andreev who will take his place alongside the established trio of Mikhail Youzhny, Nikolay Davydenko and Dmitry Tursunovta. Djokovic, who was given a hero’s welcome home in Belgrade last week, will have able backing from Janko Tipsarevic with doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic an added plus.
Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will make his debut for a powerful-looking French team to take on Romania in Sibiu alongside good friend Richard Gasquet.
With the experienced Mikhail Llodra and Arnaud Clement comprising the doubles, the French are looking a good bet to go all the way this year and they should have little trouble getting past a Romanian quartet led by the veteran Andrei Pavel and the giant Victor Hanescu.
“After seeing the way he played in Melbourne, I have no worries on how he will handle his Davis Cup debut this weekend,” French captain Guy Forget said of Tsonga, who has shot from nowhere to celebrity in France.
“He was so solid Down Under that I just can’t see him being unable to deal with it all,” Forget added. Britain’s hopes of finally winning a World Group tie again appear to have taken a fatal blow with Andy Murray’s decision not to travel to Buenos Aires to take on Argentina on clay-courts due to injury.
Without Murray, the low-ranking British pairing of Jamie Baker and Alex Bogdanovic have little or no hope against the likes of David Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri. “It was about as tough a draw as we could have got,” said British captain John Lloyd.
“Spain and Argentina are probably the two best teams. But in the world group you have to expect tough draws and we certainly got one. “Obviously we are very disappointed that Andy will not be with us. He is our top player.” Asian hopes will rest firmly on the broad shoulders of Hyung-Taik Lee as he leads South Korea away against Germany. The South Koreans will start as underdogs, but Germany are without the injured Tommy Haas and Nicolas Kiefer and will need a strong showing from the rising Philipp Kohlschreiber in the singles.
In other World Group first round ties the Czech Republic take on Belgium in Ostrava, Israel are at home to Sweden and Peru host Spain who will be without both Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer.—Agencies