It seems to be centuries away when Spain won their first Davis Cup. Actually it was only 12 years ago (2000). After that Spain became utterly dominant to win other 5 Davis Cup editions to make it 6! Now Spain is in a Davis Cup final once again, but this time it might be tougher for many reasons.

The case for Spain

Even if the Armada will not have their best player, Nadal, due to his injury, they still have very good representatives such as Ferrer (in top form), Almagro (11th in the world) and Grannoles/Lopez in doubles (they have just won the 2012 WTF). The Spanish team has also the experience and the right mentality to win a Davis Cup.

The case for Czech Republic

The biggest problem for Spain is that they are going to play in Prague on a indoor court that is super fast. This will probably give a decisive advantage to players such as Berdych, Stepanek and Rosol. Berdych tennis is often erratic, but on very fast inddor courts he is really strong. Stepanek is playing very well. In Shanghai he had a remarkable tournament to lose in the quarters to Murray when he lost an entertaining 3 set match

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Statistics

These 2 teams have already played 6 times with Spain leading 4-2.

2009 Final – Spain – Czech Republic 5-0
2004 1st round- Spain – Czech Republic 3-2
1972 Final Zone B  – Spain – Czech Republic 3-2

1971 Final Zone A – Czech Republic – Spain 3-2
1965 Semifinal- Spain – Czech Republic 4-1
1931 1st round – Czech Republic – Spain 3-2

Rubbers

These should be the rubbers

1: David Ferrer vs. Radek Stepanek -> H2H 6-3 for Ferrer (3-0 for Ferrer on hard courts!)

2: Tomas Berdych vs. Nicolas Almagro -> H2H 8-3 for Berdych (4-1 for Berdych only in 2012)

3: Marcel Granollers & Marc Lopez vs. Tomas Berdych & Radek Stepanek

4: David Ferrer vs. Tomas Berdych -> H2H 4-2 for Ferrer (2-0 for Ferrer hard indoor!)

5: Nicolas Almagro vs. Radek Stepanek -> H2H 2-1 for Stepanek

Prediction

In “normal cases” we would go for Spain, but given the fact that they play in Prague, the court is super fast and Almagro seems to have not many chances with Berdych and he might be the underdog with Stepanek… Czech Republic could be the surprising pick!