Malaga host final 'Salad Bowl' fight without top stars

Malaga host final ‘Salad Bowl’ fight without top stars

Posted On: November 21, 2022

MADRID, Nov. 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The José María Martín Carpena Sports Palace in Malaga is already ready to crown the new world champion country with the dispute from this Tuesday to next Sunday of the decisive phase of the 2022 Davis Cup final to which Spain does not reach not the first line, although everything is open in the absence of the main “heavyweights”.

The Malaga venue, Unicaja’s usual home, will take over from Madrid Arena and Caja Mágica in 2021 and 2019 respectively for the finals, to see which of the eight teams still in contention lift the prestigious “Salad Bowl” and takes more in the list of winners to suspended Russia.

Alongside the Spaniard, who will try to take advantage of his status as hosts in the face of significant losses and a surface that does not benefit him, there will be Croatia and Canada, second in this new format created by Gerard Pique and Kosmos, the United States and Australia, the two best performers and yearning to end a years-long wait, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

The team led by Sergi Bruguera will have to recover from the absences of Carlos Alcaraz, world number one and injured a few weeks ago, and Rafa Nadal, who gave up playing in the competition this year, to try to fight for the seventh place. title, although in the quarter-finals, this Wednesday, they will have a tough opponent in the Croats, who arrive with the veteran Marin Cilic, the dangerous Borna Coric and a powerful double.

Without its first two ‘swords’, Spain will seek to be competitive with two confirmed and already expert tennis players in this Davis Cup like Pablo Carreño, absent from the ’round robin’ in September due to injury, and Roberto Bautista, who accompanied by Marcel Granollers, Pedro Martinez and Albert Ramos.

The hosts will be looking to get rid of one of the most balanced and favored squads, a condition that could also fall on Canada and the United States. The Canadian team arrives with an invigorating Félix Auger-Aliassime and a good complement in Denis Shapovalov, even if he is not at his best, while the American, who has not played in the final since 2007, is accompanied by Taylor Fritz and Francis Tiafoe.

Precisely Auger-Aliassime, number six, and Fritz, nine, will be the only “Top 10” in the world ranking who will be in Malaga where, due to different circumstances, they will not be, in addition to Alcaraz and Nadal, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, Russian Daniil Medvedev, Norwegian Casper Ruud, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas or German Alexander Zverev, an absence of big names which, the organization hopes, will not affect the spectacle of a World Cup of tennis which will open on Tuesday in Australia, whose last Davis Cup final dates back to 2003, and the Netherlands.