2/5/10 1:47 PM | Johan Lindahl
With 28-year-old Lleyton Hewitt out of immediate consideration following last week's second hip operation, life is grim for the Australian Davis Cup team.
But the last thing captain John Fitzgerald needs is a Viking raid on one of the few young players in
his potential stable.
That's just what could occur if Sweden--in similar dire tennis straits--goes after world No. 239 Nick Lindahl, whose parents emigrated from Scandinavia three months after his birth in 1988.
Lindahl has already gotten a taste of Davis Cup after being taken along as a junior training partner against Switzerland four years ago.
But with a tennis crisis of its own to deal with, Sweden--a former Davis Cup power just like Australia--is scratching for players. French Open finalist Robin Soderling, ranked eighth, is the only Swede in
the Top 200 on the current ATP list.
New Swedish captain Thomas Enqvist has his eye on trying to lure Lindahl back to play for the land of his birth, with the 21-year-old an automatic national No. 2 behind Soderling.
"Why couldn't he be able to do like Rusedski," queried Enqvist, of the Canadian who switched nationality to Britain in the 1990s thanks to his English mother. "But it's important where he has his heart."
Davis Cup assistant Magnus Larsson, another former player like Enqvist, added, "We're interested, no doubt about that."
Tell a friend »