The Swiss Davis Cup team will fight to avoid complete anonymity on Friday and Saturday in Lima. A defeat on the Peruvian clay court would send Captain Severin Lüthi’s selection to world group II.
The Bernese chose the experience by choosing Henri Laaksonen (ATP 137), Sandro Ehrat (ATP 382), Johan Nikles (ATP 488), Antoine Bellier (ATP 536) and Luca Margaroli (ATP 131 in duplicate) for this group jump-off. global I. Who has everything of a trap.
Switzerland finds itself in a hellish spiral in the Davis Cup. She has lost her last four meetings, and remains on a mortifying failure last September in Slovakia where Henri Laaksonen was unrecognizable. Beaten twice in singles in Bratislava, he has a lot to be forgiven.
The Schaffhousois, who has often delivered great matches against better rated opponents, will have to do violence in Lima. Unable to win a single game on the main circuit since the start of the year, he will be under pressure. No 2 Peruvian in the hierarchy, Nicolas Alvarez (ATP 330) certainly has the means to take advantage of it.
Henri Laaksonen is not even the highest ranked player in the Peruvian metropolis. No. 1 in Peru, Juan Pablo Varillas is two places ahead of him. The 24-year-old right-hander posted the highest ranking in his career (135th) after spending a lap in Santiago de Chile on the ATP Tour.
Peruvian players also have the double advantage of playing in front of their audience, on a surface where they play for most of the year. “It is certainly their best surface,” recalls Severin Lüthi, whose protégés will have to deal with temperatures above 30 degrees.
The task of Switzerland promises to be very delicate in this dam. Failure would send him into World Group II. A victory would allow him to stay in Group I and find himself next September against the losers of the qualifying matches for the Madrid final scheduled this weekend also.
Source: ats / bb
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