Article

  • Australia to follow bouncing Ball in Davis Cup quest

    8/28/08 11:01 AM | Johan Lindahl
    - Desperate Australia will hope to follow the bouncing Ball to Davis Cup success after picking a raw rookie for the team to travel to Chile next month.

    With Lleyton Hewitt's career on the line as he recovers from hip surgery and next-man Chris Guccione a patchy performer at best, coach John Fitzgerald has been forced to dig deep to fill his team roster.

    Latest choice of the skipper is California-born-and raised Carsten Ball. who has kept his Aussie passport all along. The son of a former tennis player ranks 188th and lost in the first round of he US Open.

    The Davis Cup relegation tie will be played on clay in Chile's port city of Antofagasta with a team headed by Olympic medallist Fernando Gonzalez.

    Ball, son of former Australia Davis Cup player Syd Ball, is the first player named in the squad. “They've invited me down there so I will be a little bit more experienced and a little bit more ready to go”, he told Australian media.

    “I'm looking forward to maybe fighting to get a spot on the team but I will just be happy to be there and supporting everybody”.

    Guccione, 87th, should also form part of a cobbled-together squad to be finalised next week.

Tell a friend »

Comments


Write comment

You have to be logged in to comment. If you do not have an account, click here to register. It only takes a minute and you'll be redirected back to this page.
Username:

Password: