Italy’s non-playing captain Corrado Barazzutti on Monday predicted a tough match against India, insisting that the hosts were not underdogs despite having lower-ranked players compared to his team.
World No 18 Marco Cecchinato will lead Italy’s challenge, while they have two others inside top-60. India’s top-ranked Prajnesh Gunneswaran on the other hand is world number 102.
“In Davis Cup, the ranking is only important for the draws on who plays first and who plays second. But everything changes once you step on the courts. No one are underdogs I think. It will be a tough match,” Barazzutti told reporters after their first practice session on grass courts of the Calcutta South Club.
On head-to-head count, Italy lead India 4-1. India won the last time they played in Kolkata, in 1985.
India opted to host formidable Italy on grass on February 1 and 2 on grass courts, considering that the visitors have tough hard and clay court players.
The winner of the tie will qualify for the inaugural World Group Finals in Madrid in November this year.
“They are playing at home and on grass. We have to be focused and play with utmost respect. It’s always very difficult to play when you play for your country. It’s important for us for sure.
“They are a good side. They are good players. We have to show bigger respect to this team, these players because they are very good,” Barazzutti who was part of the Davis Cup winning Italian team in 1976, said.
Cecchinato who defeated Novak Djokovic en route the French Open semifinals last year, has only played one Davis Cup rubber and it was on clay as no one in the Italy squad has played the Davis Cup on grass.
“It’s grass. What I can say. That is the court. And we have to play on this court, we have nothing to complain. We were just practising to play as better as possible.”
“You know the schedule. Only some players played on grass before the Wimbledon last year. There’s maybe one tournament after the Wimbledon. Nobody plays a lot on the grass. Even the Indians don’t play I think. Not only us,” he said.
The five-member team got used to the lush green South Club courts sweating it out for close to two hours.
Barazzutti slams new Davis Cup format
Italy’s Davis Cup winning team member Corrado Barazzutti on Monday said the radical changes made to the tournament’s format was akin to tweaking a Grand Slam.
Now team’s non-playing captain Barazzutti was part of the Italy team that won its first and only Davis Cup title in 1976 with a 4-1 win over Chile.
The 119-year-old premier competition has undergone some drastic changes this year with World Group Finals taking place at a single venue. A total of 18 teams will gather in Madrid to decide the champion as the home and away format has been done away with for the Finals.
All matches will be best-of three sets instead of the previous best-of five as the International Tennis Federation (ITF) believes the format would be more attractive.
“It’s looking like changing a Slam. Can you change a Grand Slam into best of three and you play inside one week only. You think it’s the same!”,” Barazzutti said on the sidelines of his side’s first practice session ahead of their Qualifiers against India.
“I don’t know why somebody liked this more than the previous format. But you know everything is changing, it’s going faster.”
“For a player like me, who comes from a different era, I think the previous format was much better in the past — play best of five. Now we play only in one place the final,” the 65-year-old rued.
The new format was developed by investment group Kosmos, founded by Spanish footballer Gerard Pique as the ITF says the players will compete for the rival Grand Slam prize money.
Barazzutti further said no top player plays for prize money.
“Money is important. But I don’t think the best players in the world play for money. I don’t think (Roger) Federer plays Wimbledon, (Rafael) Nadal plays Roland Garros and (Bovak) Djokovic plays Flushing Meadows for the money,” he said.
