Ferrer & Almagro to join Nadal on Davis Cup sidelines

Davis Cup captain Alex Corretja has a potential problem on his hands ahead of Spain’s first round tie against Canada in February after both David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro indicated they won’t be making themselves available for selection.

In the absence of Rafael Nadal, world No5 Ferrer and No11 Almagro were both key drivers in Spain’s journey to the final in 2012, with the former winning all six rubbers he contested in the three ties and the latter playing all four ties over the course of the season.

Ferrer, however, told reporters in Abu Dhabi, where he is playing the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, that he will not be playing his country’s first tie against Canada in Vancouver scheduled for the weekend of February 1-3.

Discussing his upcoming schedule and explaining his decision to compete in Doha next week for the first time since 2005, Ferrer said: “This year I will play in Doha. So here (Abu Dhabi), Doha, Auckland and Melbourne, because I will not play the first tie of Davis Cup.

When prompted to give reasons for missing Davis Cup, the 30-year-old said: “Because I can’t play everything and I need to rest after the Australian Open. We have to play best of five sets there and after that I would like to rest.”

Meanwhile, Almagro was not as adamant in his remarks about skipping the competition but he revealed that he has not made his decision yet and hinted at the reasons why he would choose to miss it.

He said: “I need to think because I had many problems last year with my shoulder and it was really tough. I had eight infiltrations in my shoulder during the year and I don’t want to play like this again.

“I want to be ready to fight all the matches, all the weeks. But Davis Cup is special, Davis Cup is another emotions, many great moments and we’ll see. But right now I want to enjoy the beginning of the season, I want to enjoy the ending of last year and we’ll see what happens in February.”

With Nadal yet to return to action raising many question marks around his fitness following a long knee injury lay-off, and recent comments from both Ferrer and Almagro, Spain could face a Milos Raonic-led Canada without its top three players.

Spain have won the Davis Cup five times in the past 12 years but are coming off a defeat to the Czechs in Prague, where there was also some turbulence in the squad after Feliciano Lopez publicly voiced his discontent for not getting selected over Almagro in the final.

 

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