The draw is totally unfair
I can't believe this. Shouldn't the 8 finalists from 2001 have some advantage like at least a seeding since they are changing the format!
Seems unfair that Sweden plays Italy, Slovakia plays Switzerland and can go straight through to the Quarter finals when none of this teams even got passed the 2nd round, yet teams like Australia and Argentina who fought so well winning a few ties to get into the finals have to play like the top seeds first up!
Sweden vs Italy are actually the two weakest teams in the draw with only 1 top 100 player between them as most of the Italian players refuse to play due to payment disputes and yet they get to play each other! This is astounding!
In my opinion the 8 finalists from 2001 should all get seedings and play the 8 countries that requalified for the main world group.
The winners of Sweden/Italy and Slovakia/Switzerland don't deserve to get into the Q/F and should consider themselves extremely lucky that this stupid, bizarre draw enables this!
I'm not against a change to the format, I just don't agree with penalising defending finalists!
When you look at the teams likely to be fielded Australia is the 7th strongest.
Going on current rankings the top 8 teams are (Average ranking of likely players in brackets)
1. USA (3)<br />2. Belgium (6)<br />3. France (21)<br />4. Spain (26)<br />5. Russia (30)<br />6. Slovakia (32)<br />7. Australia (49)<br />8. Czech Republic (55)
9. Austria (56)<br />10. Germany (62)<br />11. Argentina (75)<br />12. Switzerland (75)<br />13. Croatia (75)<br />14. Hungary (88)<br />15. Italy (100)<br />16. Sweden (270)
Having stated that Belgium would be absolutely stuffed if Henin or Clitsjers can't play, they have only Callens at 163 and then Butkiewicz at 353 to replace them! Maybe Australia might get lucky otherwise it will take a miracle to avoid world group qualies!!
I don't think I'm being too biased in my opinion, I just feel Australia and Argentina have been hard done by, and this could have been avoided with introducing 8 seeds with the transition in format of the world group.
I can't believe this. Shouldn't the 8 finalists from 2001 have some advantage like at least a seeding since they are changing the format!
Seems unfair that Sweden plays Italy, Slovakia plays Switzerland and can go straight through to the Quarter finals when none of this teams even got passed the 2nd round, yet teams like Australia and Argentina who fought so well winning a few ties to get into the finals have to play like the top seeds first up!
Sweden vs Italy are actually the two weakest teams in the draw with only 1 top 100 player between them as most of the Italian players refuse to play due to payment disputes and yet they get to play each other! This is astounding!
In my opinion the 8 finalists from 2001 should all get seedings and play the 8 countries that requalified for the main world group.
The winners of Sweden/Italy and Slovakia/Switzerland don't deserve to get into the Q/F and should consider themselves extremely lucky that this stupid, bizarre draw enables this!
I'm not against a change to the format, I just don't agree with penalising defending finalists!
When you look at the teams likely to be fielded Australia is the 7th strongest.
Going on current rankings the top 8 teams are (Average ranking of likely players in brackets)
1. USA (3)<br />2. Belgium (6)<br />3. France (21)<br />4. Spain (26)<br />5. Russia (30)<br />6. Slovakia (32)<br />7. Australia (49)<br />8. Czech Republic (55)
9. Austria (56)<br />10. Germany (62)<br />11. Argentina (75)<br />12. Switzerland (75)<br />13. Croatia (75)<br />14. Hungary (88)<br />15. Italy (100)<br />16. Sweden (270)
Having stated that Belgium would be absolutely stuffed if Henin or Clitsjers can't play, they have only Callens at 163 and then Butkiewicz at 353 to replace them! Maybe Australia might get lucky otherwise it will take a miracle to avoid world group qualies!!
I don't think I'm being too biased in my opinion, I just feel Australia and Argentina have been hard done by, and this could have been avoided with introducing 8 seeds with the transition in format of the world group.