After the Sunshine Double, the best eight tennis nations in the world will once again be told:”The hunt for the 2018 title continues. There are problems in some teams.
To claim that the Davis Cup quarter-finals in Indian Wells are already overshadowed would be an exaggeration. If Lucas Pouille hadn’t announced after his surprising defeat against Yuki Bhambri that he would abandon his start in Miami in order to duly resign from the meeting with the Italians in Genoa on 6-6 October, he would not have been able to make the final decision. till 8. April. After all, Pouille also said that he had let the training slack before the BNP Paribas Open, not surprisingly since the Frenchman has been in a finals of a tournament three times this year, most recently in Dubai. Lucas Pouille won the only title in Montpellier.
A really fit player would certainly do well for Yannick Noah in Italy, especially since Gael Monfils had to give up in Indian Wells against Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to give up completely. On the Italian side, however, not everything is absolutely delightful, even though Fabio Fognini has already won a tournament in Sao Paolo. The capricious Italian top man presented a match against Jeremy Chardy in Indian Wells, a match that had already been won for sure.
Michael Kohlmann and his team should travel to Valencia without worries, even though Alexander Zverev left the competition early in Indian Wells. But Zverev has shown in Brisbane that he can grow at the Davis Cup task, and with Philipp Kohlschreiber the second German top player is slowly but surely gaining momentum. The Spaniards, on the other hand, have one question to answer first and foremost: does Rafael Nadal play or not? The chances for this are one percent, an optimistically estimated figure. So Albert Ramos Vinolas, Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta will probably try to rob the hosts to victory.
The good news for the Croatians, who meet at home in Kazakhstan, is of course not that Marin Cilic played some good balls in Indian Wells against Philipp Kohlschreiber. Cilic will almost always get one to three points for his country. Rather encouraging is the development of Borna Coric, who made it into the last sixteen at Indian Wells, who has good prospects against Taylor Fritz there. Like the US-Americans against Belgium. Their top man David Goffin has refrained from attacking the Sunshine Double from the outset. From the point of view of the Belgian tennis fans, unfortunately, it is also to a start in the immediately following Davis Cup fight in Nashville.