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Tuesday September 20, 2005
Federer relishing Davis Cup return
By Mark Ledsom, Reuters
GENEVA - Britain's Davis Cup team will
have history on their side this weekend when they take on
Switzerland in a bid to rejoin the world's top 16 nations.
Unfortunately though for the British, their opponents will
have a certain Roger Federer on their side.
Britain have won all three of their previous Davis Cup
encounters with Switzerland -- dropping only one rubber in the
process -- but the world number one's return to the Swiss squad
has clearly stacked the odds in favour of the home team.
"The Davis Cup has always been quite special for me because
playing for your country is totally different than playing for
your own name," the six-time grand slam champion told Reuters in
an interview on Tuesday.
"Of course we'll be the favourites with me as the world
number one and us playing at home and on clay, which is not
usually the British players' favourite surface, so there are
definitely many things working against them in this tie.
"At the same time (Andrew) Murray is coming along and Greg
(Rusedski) has had a pretty good summer so they will know they
have a chance to pull off an upset. We just have to make sure
that we close them out in time."
Despite his professed enjoyment of this team competition,
Federer has not let the Davis Cup get in the way of his
individual ambitions on the ATP Tour.
It is likely that the Swiss would not even be fighting to
retain their World Group status if Federer had chosen to take
part in Switzerland's first round tie against the Netherlands in
March.
RANKING PRIORITY
"Missing that tie was not an easy decision for me,
especially when we have good young players like (Swiss number
two) Stanislas Wawrinka coming through to strengthen the squad,"
Federer said.
"But for me the big, big focus of the year was holding on to
the number one position and playing another great year of tennis
which was a decision that the team totally understood.
"I've already managed to achieve my goals for this year, by
winning two grand slams and 10 tournaments so far, so now
anything else that comes along is a bonus."
Federer is, of course, not the only player to have put
individual needs ahead of Davis Cup duties -- the British squad
are themselves having to do without the services of national
number one Tim Henman, who announced his retirement from the
competition in January.
"Henman was playing Davis Cup for 10 years, so I think his
decision was totally understandable," Federer reckoned.
"At some point it's probably best to decide that you're not
going to play, rather than trying to come in and out of the
team.
"There will always be people who don't understand, although
I think being world number one has helped spare me a lot of
criticism. Personally I would like to see the Davis Cup being
played every two years, which would give everybody a much bigger
chance to take part."
Federer has yet to decide about his Davis Cup commitments
for next year, saying on Tuesday that a lot would depend on this
weekend's result and who the Swiss are drawn against in 2006.
His motivation for this weekend seems strong enough,
however, with the world number one confident that at least one
aspect of the Davis Cup tie will be more enjoyable than this
month's U.S. Open triumph.
"What I'm looking forward to most this weekend is the home
support," Federer said with a grin.
"What I faced in the U.S. Open final with 23,000 spectators
all backing (Andre) Agassi to win, was really quite tough. After
that it's going to be nice to be back on home soil."
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