There’s no ATP fantasy tennis this week because it\u2019s time for Davis Cup. So let\u2019s pick that instead. First, let\u2019s recap last week.<\/b><\/p>\n
Rear View Mirror<\/strong> – A look at last week\u2019s picks.<\/p>\n Miserable. Just miserable. Gael Monfils forgot to enter the Bucharest Open so he qualified and took out my guy Filippo Volandri in the first round. Nicolas Almagro retired in his first match and only one ranked player got to the semifinals. My only remaining player was Tommy Robredo. He got to the final in Beijing and lost to Fernando Gonzalez who decided it was time to win his first matches on hard court since March.<\/p>\n Davis Cup<\/strong><\/p>\n The US is one match away from getting to the Davis Cup final. So is Sweden. The two countries will meet on a super fast indoor carpet surface in Gothenburg, Sweden, to see which one gets there.<\/p>\n The US is lucky because Sweden\u2019s Robin Soderling will miss the tie. That leaves Sweden\u2019s Jonas Bjorkman and Thomas Johansson to battle with Andy Roddick and James Blake in singles. It looks like the US would have to work hard to lose this tie.<\/p>\n Bjorkman got to the quarterfinal at Marseille on indoor hard court earlier this year, but he beat two clay court players to get there and that was the last time he\u2019s done well at an indoor event since 2005. He\u2019s 2-4 against Roddick and 0-2 against Blake.<\/p>\n Thomas Johansson got to the final at St. Petersburg on carpet last year but he\u2019s 0-5 against Roddick and 0-2 against Blake.<\/p>\n There are a few problems however. Strange things happen when players get patriotic in front of their home crowd. Blake is 11-7 in Davis Cup which is not overwhelming. His record in five set matches is 1-10. And then there\u2019s that second Johansson.<\/p>\n Joachim Johansson has been out since the Australian Open and he missed much of last year with shoulder surgery. But if he\u2019s slightly healthy, that could be enough to team up with Jonas Bjorkman \u2013 or Simon Aspelin – to steal the doubles rubber because Joachim\u2019s serve is monstrous.<\/p>\n Even though Aspelin teamed up with Julian Knowle to win the US Open doubles title this year, it\u2019s not likely to happen because the US has the Bryan brother and they\u2019re 11-1 in Davis Cup doubles.<\/p>\n I would be very surprised if I was not booking my ticket to the Davis Cup final in some US city come late November. And that also means that Russia will beat Germany in the other semifinal because if Germany wins, the final will be played in Germany.<\/p>\n Marat Safin won\u2019t be in Moscow for the tie against Germany. He\u2019s climbing the sixth highest mountain in the world, Cho-Oyu, which is on the Nepal-Tibet border. Makes sense to me. What else would he be doing in the middle the tennis season besides climbing a tall mountain?<\/p>\n