Davis Cup Betting / Barry Millns / 19 November 2008 / Leave a comment

From a neutral as well as a Spanish perspective, Rafael Nadal will be sorely missed when the Davis Cup final gets underway on Friday. But there should still be some quality tennis on show with four Top 20 singles players among the eight chosen to represent their countries, writes Barry Millns.

Recently turned 20, Juan Martin Del Potro (45 wins - 13 losses), ranked number nine after a career best season, is the new star of Argentine tennis. Tall, tough and powerful he will play a leading role for the hosts, as he did in the semi-finals when he not only beat Nikolay Davydenko in straights sets but then did the same to Igor Andreev in the deciding rubber to put Argentina through to their third final.

This time last year David Nalbandian (43 - 16) was being tipped for a 'big 2008' having beaten all the world's best to claim successive Masters Series titles in Madrid and Paris. But as things turned out he was a major disappointment again in the grand slams, failing to make the quarter-finals in any of them for the second year running.

So aside from two lesser titles in Buenos Aires and Stockholm, the Davis Cup can 'save' the world No.11's season and having been on the losing side two years ago in Moscow, the Argentine talisman (16 Davis Cup singles wins and only 4 losses) knows this is his best shot of claiming the title with home advantage (Argentina on a 13-match home winning streak dating back to 1998), with Del Potro now sharing the heavy singles load and without Nadal to deal with.

If he is fully fit and motivated, which he surely will be for this, the mercurial Nalbandian should also partner either Agustin Calleri or Jose Acasuso in Saturday's doubles. Calleri, aged 32, is still ranked No.60 in singles (21 - 23) and No.70 in doubles.

His best performances so far this season came in reaching the semis of Casablanca and Stuttgart on his own, while he partnered Peru's Luis Horna to the doubles title in Buenos Aries and to the final in Acapulco. As for Acasuso, the laid-back 26 year-old, who was also in the 2006 final team with Nalbandian and Calleri, has had a fairly mediocre 2008 (27 - 25).

Ranked in the Top 20 back in 2006, Acasuso has ended this year at No.48, with a runners-up finish in Buenos Aries the best he has to show in singles, plus a solitary doubles title in Vina Del Mar alongside compatriot Sebastian Prieto.

With no Nadal to lead Spain's bid a huge burden will fall on the shoulders of David Ferrer (44 - 22). After last year's career-best campaign in which he claimed three titles, made the US Open semi-finals, broke into the world's Top 5 and finished runner-up at the Tennis Masters Cup, his form and ranking (No.12) have slipped markedly in the latter half of 2008.

Ferrer's last big win came in the Davis Cup semi-finals at home to USA in which he won an epic five-setter against Andy Roddick on the first day. If he can contribute like that again here then Spain will still have a chance and his performance(s) could be crucial.

For Spain's established doubles duo, Fernando Verdasco (46 - 27) and Feliciano Lopez (26 - 26), one is likely to be picked for singles duty as well. Verdasco, ranked 15 places higher at No.16 has the better form of the two. But Lopez may be more of a threat with his big lefty serve on the indoor hard court and has experienced playing in a final away, as he did in Australia in 2003.

As for Davis Cup debutant Marcel Granollers (15 - 20), how much of a part he will play over the three days, if at all, is unclear. A surprise choice by captain Emilio Sanchez, the 22 year-old right-hander ranked just outside the Top 50, beat James Blake back in April to win his maiden title in Houston, where he also reached the doubles final.

That, though, was his only win to date over a Top 20 player and, while Granollers played alongside Nadal in the Spanish team that won the 2002 Junior Davis Cup, in the intensely partisan atmosphere of the Estadio Islas Malvinas it is tough to imagine him beating any others.