Leon Smith is expecting a highly motivated Switzerland on the other side of the net as Great Britain try to maintain their Davis Cup momentum in Manchester on Friday.
Britain began their campaign at a packed AO Arena on Wednesday with a 2-1 upset victory over last year’s runners-up Australia.
That gave them a great chance of righting the wrongs of last year, when they were eliminated after only two matches of the group stage in Glasgow, and progressing to finals week in Malaga in November but there is still a lot of work to do.
Switzerland, led by three-time grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka, are already in the last-chance saloon having lost 3-0 to France in their opener on Tuesday.
“This is just the start, that’s what we talked about,” said captain Smith after watching debutant Jack Draper and Dan Evans pull off impressive wins against Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex De Minaur, respectively.
“We’ve got a massive match on Friday against Switzerland, who obviously lost 3-0 so they’re going to have to come out and do something.
“They’re going to have high motivation and they’ll be playing with a crowd this time, which obviously Stan wasn’t happy with the other day.”
Wawrinka took to social media to voice his dissatisfaction with the small turnout for their meeting against France but a similar crowd to Wednesday’s 9,290 is expected on Friday.
Given their performances against Australia, Evans and Draper are the front-runners to keep their singles spots ahead of top-ranked Cameron Norrie and Andy Murray, but Smith may yet spring another surprise.
Evans had a strong record against De Minaur but has lost all five meetings with Wawrinka, while Swiss number two Dominic Stricker beat fellow 21-year-old Draper at last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals in their only previous match.
Smith welcomes the dilemma, though, adding: “People keep saying you’ve got really difficult selections – well, I’d rather that way to what it was many moons ago.
“I think it’s great, I think it’s testament to all the guys that everyone’s playing at the top of their game.
“We’ve got to weigh everything up because people have played a lot of tennis as well, potentially look at match-ups, but we discuss it as a group and ultimately we’ll make a call on it.”
Draper has managed only 10 tournaments this season because of a succession of injuries, the latest of which to his left shoulder saw him retire at the French Open and then miss Wimbledon, dropping him out of the top 100.
But time on the sidelines has not affected the Londoner’s ability to look like a top-10 player in the making and a run to the fourth-round of the US Open was his best yet at a grand slam.
“It’s been an incredibly challenging year for me,” he said. “I started the year at 38 in the world, everything was going great, and then just got hit by a load of injuries really. Maybe a few mistakes that I’ll learn from and stuff I could have done better.
“The one before Wimbledon was a real blow, I couldn’t play for a month or two, I spent loads of time in a bit of a rut trying to get out of it.
“I worked really hard to get myself back, I knew my time would come again because my tennis has always been there.
“New York was a massive boost for me, I needed it. Then coming here I’ve been really confident.
“It’s all coming together so hopefully I can just keep on going to the end of the season and finish really strong.”
Alcaraz's pursuit for third straight Madrid Open crown continues by defeating Seyboth Wild
Carlos Alcaraz boosted his hopes of a third straight Madrid Open title as he comfortably beat Thiago Seyboth Wild to reach the fourth round on Sunday.
Back in his home country of Spain, Alcaraz eased to a 6-3 6-3 triumph to set up a fourth-round clash with Jan-Lennard Struff, whom he beat in last year's final.
The first six games of the opening set went to serve, but Alcaraz found a crucial break in the seventh and ninth games of the set to put him in pole position for victory, a lead he would not relinquish as he overcame being broken in the seventh game of the second set to seal his safe progression.
Holger Rune was a surprise casualty as the world number 12 was defeated 6-4 4-6 6-3 by Tallon Griekspoor, though world number eight Andrey Rublev eased through with a straight-sets win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Data debrief
With his triumph over Seyboth Wild at the Madrid Open, Alcaraz has now won 93.3 per cent of his games at the tournament. That is the highest win percentage of any player with at least 10 games played in a single ATP-1000 event since the format was introduced in 1990.
Against Seyboth Wild, Alcaraz won 27 of his 31 first-serve points, also recording 19 winners to his opponent's 10 as he dominated the contest on his way to victory.
Rybakina eases past Sherif to reach Madrid Open last 16
Elena Rybakina cruised past Mayar Sherif in straight sets to reach the last 16 of the Madrid Open on Sunday.
World number four Rybakina rarely looked like being troubled by Sherif, easing to a 6-1 6-4 triumph, winning 22 of her 26 first-serve points on her way to victory.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion broke Sherif's serve twice in the first set to gain control of the match, before holding her serve five times in the second to ensure victory.
Also into the last 16 in Madrid are Yulia Putintseva and Daria Kasatkina, who beat Caroline Dolehide and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova respectively, both in straight sets. However, world number seven and reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova is out after she was upset by Mirra Andreeva, losing 7-5 6-1.
Data debrief
In reaching the Madrid Open last 16, Rybakina again showed her class on clay. Her victory over Sherif saw her become only the fourth player in the last 10 years to win 14 straight WTA matches on clay, alongside Serena Williams, Simona Halep and Iga Swiatek.
Additionally, Rybakina's 475 winners at WTA-1000 events in 2024 are 112 more than the next best, Danielle Collins with 363.
Madrid Open: Nadal roars to victory against De Minaur
Rafael Nadal delighted his home fans at the Madrid Open as he roared to an impressive victory over Alex de Minaur on Saturday.
The Spaniard battled to a 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 victory to earn his first win over a top-20 player in the world rankings since the ATP Finals back in 2022.
De Minaur had beaten Nadal last week in Barcelona, but the five-time Madrid champion was not to be denied this time in front of a crowd which included King Felipe VI along with football stars Zinedine Zidane and Vinicius Jr.
Emerging triumphant from an epic 77-minute opening set proved decisive, with Nadal more comfortable in the second as De Minaur missed an opportunity to become the first player to beat him in consecutive weeks since Novak Djokovic achieved the feat way back in 2011.
Nadal will take on Pedro Cachin in the third round after the Argentine dumped out Fances Tiafoe in three sets.
"I'm super happy to be able to be competitive against a great player like Alex and play over two hours," Nadal said, per the ATP Tour website.
"It means a lot to me and the atmosphere here is just a joke, so I can't thank enough everybody here.
"It still needs time [until I am back to my best]. I think for moments it has been a good level of tennis. I was able to do positive things, but still on and off.
"But I really believe that tennis hasn't been an issue for the last two years. More the physical issues.
"If I am able to play weeks in a row and if I am able to play tennis, then I'm going to see how far I can go and how competitive I could be. But that's not the case yet, just step by step and let's see how I recover."
Elsewhere at the tournament, Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner, playing as the top seed at a Masters 1000 event for the first time, cruised to victory over fellow Italian Lorenzo Sonego to start his campaign in style.
It took Sinner just 69 minutes to win 6-0 6-3 and improve to 26-2 in a remarkable 2024 season so far.
“I know Lorenzo quite well and we have a good friendship off the court, we play Davis Cup together, we practise a lot together,” Sinner said.
“The mental side was a little bit different than it used to be, so I'm just happy how I handled the situation. He didn't play at his best. I think we saw this. I wish him all the best for the rest of the season.”
Progress was harder to come by for Daniil Medvedev as he lost the opening set to Matteo Arnaldi, though the third seed eventually battled through 2-6 6-4 6-4 to book a third-round clash with American Sebastian Korda.
There was a surprise result, though, with Brazilian qualifier Thiago Monteiro ending the fine recent form of Stefanos Tsitsipas with a 6-4 6-4 victory.
Tsitsipas was 10-1 on clay this year going into the match, but the sixth seed crashed to a shock defeat just a week after Monteiro had lost in the first round of a Challenger Tour event in Portugal, marking a rapid reversal of his fortunes.
“Every week you have a new opportunity," said Monteiro. “These past few weeks I wasn’t feeling really good on the court. I was trying to do well at Challengers but it didn’t work.
“I just kept up the hard work, day by day. Even when I was not feeling good and not winning matches, I kept believing in myself, and this week it has paid off.
"For sure one of the biggest wins of my career. I knew it was a really tough match and I tried to just believe in myself all the time."
Sunday’s matches will see Nadal’s compatriot Carlos Alcaraz continue his campaign with a third-round clash against Thiago Seyboth Wild.
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