Indian Tennis in Transistion

Good piece here on Indian tennis as they prepare for their Davis Cup tie with new Zealand.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/tennis/top-stories/Indian-tennis-undergoing-a-phase-of-transition/articleshow/16388099.cms

Crazy Belgian Radio DJ's Prank Call Rafael Nadal

It appears disc jockeys in the United States aren't the only form of life that likes to resort to prank phone calls for cheap radio bit.

I guess you could call this the Belgain version of the "Howard Stern Show".

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal was awakened Monday morning by a prank call that got through the front desk to reach his hotel room.

Nadal is staying in Charleroi where he and team Spain will play Davis Cup later in the week against Belgium. Local media celebrity Maria del Rio is the offending party in this one. In the call, she tells the hotel operator that she’s Rafa’s mother, and it worked!  I have to wonder if the guy at the hotel front desk currently has a job.

What is amazing to me, is Rafa really in unflapable.  By putting my high school and college Spanish to good use I could tell once he realized he was getting pranked he was a pretty good sport about it and didn't get rattled.  Kudos to Rafa.  He probably also realizes this Belgian tie is nothing but a little warm up for the Spanish Armada that is his Davis Cup team.

Here's the video of the prank:

Potential Davis Cup Match of the Weekend: Melzer vs. Simon

If the tie between Austria and France gets to the 4th match, we'll have a good one to watch.

Two good top-30 players may take the court Sunday in a very important match.

Melzer vs. Simon.  if you aren't a tennis fan, you may not know how good this one might me.

A note: This match will be played in an airport hangar at the Vienna Airport.  Should be a loud crowd and some great tennis.  These two haven't played since 2009 when Simon won in Bangkok.

Since it's on clay and in Austria, I have to go with Melzer in 5 sets.

Djokovic Already in Serbia for Davis Cup

He has to be tired, both physically and mentally.  Add some jet lag to the equation, and the pressure of representling your country in the Davis Cup Semi-finals.

It doesn't matter to Novak Djokovic, who is fresh off his U.S. Open loss to Raf Nadal on Monday.  He will be front and center to take on the Czechs in Belgrade.

"Yes, I am exhausted because it's not the easiest thing in the world to recover from playing the entire U.S. Open and traveling back east but I have to adjust as quickly as I can," Djokovic told a news conference after Thursday's draw.

"We can't wait for the tie to begin and I am sure I will be able to beat the fatigue because our motivation and desire to reach the final are huge," said Djokovic, who takes on Radek Stepanek in the opening singles rubber Friday.

Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic takes on Tomas Berdych in the other singles rubber Friday, while Nenad Zimonjic and Viktor Troicki face the Czech duo of Jan Hajek and Ivo Minar in Saturday's doubles.

Djokovic plays Berdych and Tipsarevic is up against Stepanek in Sunday's reverse singles.