Davis Cup Quarterfinal - Preview

Talking about his rehabilitation, David mentioned that he gets to decide whether he does his exercises in the morning, or in the afternoon. I guess it's safe to say that during the coming weekend, his exercises will have to wait until the afternoon. Or later than that, if need be. For where else but in front of the TV will David be when Argentina's Davis Cup quarterfinal tie against the Czech Republic in Ostrava starts at 10am Cordoba time (3pm local, CEST) on Friday.
For the first time since he joined the Argentine Davis Cup team, David will miss the second tie in a row. And while being left with no other choice than to follow Wimbledon on TV probably wasn't exactly fun for David, one can only speculate what having to watch another Davis Cup tie on TV will be like for him.

Here are the players Tito Vázquez has nominated for the upcoming tie:
Juan Martin Del Potro
Juan Monaco
José Acasuso
Leornardo Mayer

Delpo and "Pico" Monaco are hardly a surprise and given his good performances recently, neither is Leonardo Mayer. But about "Chucho" Acasuso there were several articles in the wake of last year's final, saying that he ruled out ever playing Davis Cup again. So either those articles were wrong or he changed his mind in the meantime.
Now, Argentina may have a new team captain but one tradition remains - the old preference for nominating singles players, four of them in this case, and no real doubles team. Though Delpo and Monaco have played doubles together before (at the WTC in Düsseldorf this year), as have Monaco and Acasuso on a couple of occasions in the past. However, currently there are rumours that Acasuso and Mayer may play the doubles.

Right now, the only thing that's clear is that Delpo will be the #1 singles player. Vázquez hasn't officially decided yet who will play the other singles rubber on Friday but he has told members of the Argentine press that Monaco is likely to be his choice for the task. Meanwhile, the Czech team is in a similar situation. While Tomas Berdych is set to be the Czech #1, it's still not clear whether Radek Stepanek will be able to contest the other singles match, due to a niggling injury. Even though a couple of Argentine news sites report that Stepanek was seen training normally (the Czech team is completed by Ivo Minar and Lukas Dlouhy).

With David absent, Delpo now finds himself being declared the undisputed leader of the Argentine team. - A role he's apparently more than reluctant to accept, as the follwing excerpt from an interview with clarin.com shows.

Q: What changes with you being the leader now and not Nalbandian?

Delpo: I don't know. The differences in the ranking don't tell you much, we're all on the same level, us and the Czechs. These days, anyone can beat anyone. And I don't think with me it's any different. I'm here, I'm one of the players, with the same preparation as any other player.

Q: You're the world's No.5. Don't you think you have more responsibility [than the others]?

Delpo: No, no, I think we all have the same responsibility, we're all going to work together as a team. Well, maybe it will be up to me to play two or three of the five points and yes, I will be responsible for walking onto the court, trying to win. But all players have that responsibility. I'm young and don't have much experience in Davis Cup and I don't know if I can be the leader of a team. I too am still learning and, as I just said, that's why it's a team, with the same conditions for all of us and there's no difference in any kind of situation.
(...)

Q: How is your relationship with Nalbandian?

Delpo: Good.

Q: There was talk of trouble...

Delpo: No, we're fine. We're playing Davis Cup again and everything is fine.

In this quote from cadena3.com, Delpo talks about changes within the team:

This is the first time that I'm part of the team under the direction of Vázquez and the truth is that having experienced other ties last year, there is a change in the atmosphere, the environment. Being the visiting team and having trained for a couple of days in Paris [before travelling to Ostrava] has really united us.

As mentioned above, the tie starts on Friday at 3pm/15.00 CEST.
The doubles on Saturday will begin at 2pm/14.00 CEST.
On Sunday, play will continue at 1pm/13.00 CEST.


Update
Here's the order of play for the weekend:

Friday
Tomas Berdych vs Juan Monaco
Ivo Minar vs Juan Martin Del Potro

Saturday
Dlouhy/Stepanek vs Del Potro/Mayer

Sunday
Tomas Berdych vs Juan Martin Del Potro
Ivo Minar vs Juan Monaco