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Vinciguerra to make Davis debut against India

Shailesh Soni

The Swedish team for the Davis Cup tie against India at Bastaad, Sweden, to be played from July 21-23, has been announced. It comprises Thomas Enqvist, Andreas Vinciguerra, Mikael Tillstrom and Niklas Kulti. Magnus Norman, second in the world in entry ranking, has chosen not to play.

Here's a closer look at the Swedes:

Nineteen-year-old Andreas Vinciguerra gets to make his Davis Cup debut against India. Vinciguerra made his ATP tour event debut at the Bastaad Open in '98. One would remember the little hooplah about him getting a wildcard to the Chennai Open in '99 April - the first time he got a wildcard from a foreign event - and he got his first ATP win also in India, over Andre Sa at Chennai last year. The rest is history, as they say, as the kid went on a tear last year, coming back to Chennai this January as a seeded player and moving into the ATP-top 50. He also had a win over Leander Paes in the second round at the Australian Open this year, and is doing well this week at the Bastaad Open (He has beaten Juan-Antonio Marin, his conqueror in last year's final, and reached the quarter-final with a win over Gaudenzi).

It is rather interesting that Vinciguerra gets to make his Davis Cup debut also against India. He has not had great results in the last few months, and his ranking has slipped from around 35 to near 50 for now.

As for Thomas Enqvist, points-wise, his best results this year are the final at Indian Wells masters (hard), final at Adelaide (hard), and pre-quarterfinal at Wimbledon (grass). On clay, his best was a semifinal at Munich. Big points from the Stuttgart Masters title (carpet) and Stockholm title (hard) late last year are one reason for his No 6 ranking (He is No 11 in this year's race ranks).

A serve-and-volleyer, he is perhaps not a top-10 player on clay, but is certainly top-30 or top-50 (One would remember him as he was one of the guys Leander upset in his great Olympics run in Atlanta).

Beyond Vinci and Enqvist, things are more than iffy with Sweden though. Tillstrom had a terrible Davis Cup in their 3-2 win against Finland in April, losing to Ketola and then a kid, Nieminen. He reached the finals at San Jose (hard) in February and Mallorca (clay) in May, but has had four first round losses in a row since may, including one this week at Bastaad where Gustafsson upset him.

Kulti and Tillstrom will be the doubles team - quite a tough team even if India have Leander and Mahesh playing, and perhaps among the top three or four teams out there right now in the world. They beat Mahesh and Prinosil on grass three weeks back in the finals at Halle. They have reached the semifinal as of today at the Bastaad Open. Tillstrom is not in the team due to his singles record. Basically his selection is based on doubles.

For Sweden, since playing all four ties in their Davis Cup title in '97 at home, they have only played two ties at home - a 4-1 win against Spain in '98, and then the huge shocker last year when they were upset by Slovakia 3-2 in Sweden in April '99 in the very next tie right after winning the title in Italy in Dec '98. Sweden proceeded to lose a shocker in Austria in late '98 to be out of the World Group for 2000, and is fighting to get back into the World Group for 2001 with a win over India now.

For India, with Mahesh possibly having to skip singles, the position is rather bleak. But it's Davis Cup - and miracles seem to happen in all kinds of ways in Davis Cup ties.

But it would have been easier to think of miracles for India had Paes and Bhupathi been available for the singles, but without them the miracle will need to be one of the biggest ever in tennis history.

And, that too could happen, though it is a bit cheeky to say that this particular Swedish team does not have great depth in singles. If something goes wrong, as often happens in Davis Cup, it could come in the form of either Srinath, Mankad or Fazaluddin, who are in good form by their own standards, spoiling the Swedish party.

Harsh Mankad and Vishal Uppal are flying out to Sweden from Delhi today, along with Sanjay Singh the physical trainer. Mahesh will directly be reaching there from London. Srinath and Fazal will be going across the sea from Germany by this Sunday, after finishing doubles at the Obertsaufen challenger. And captain Ramesh Krishnan will have the team all assembled by next Monday (17th) for practice.