Davis Cup Final 2007. USA vs Russia.

Nikolay Davydenko, the world number 4 has been left out of Russia’s line-up for the Davis Cup final this week. Team captain Shamil Tarpishchev is starting the singles rubbers with Dimitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny ranked 34th and 19th in the world respectively. He said “We have four equal players and the choice of Youzhny was made for tactical reasons.”

I suspect that the reason Davydenko was left out was because of his dismal 0-5 career record against Andy Roddick whom Tursunov opens up against on Friday.

The Americans haven’t won a Davis cup since the triumph against Russia in 1995 when Sampras was king. Last year the Russians overcame the yanks in a great semi-final when Tursunov took out Roddick in 5 thrilling sets on the clay in Moscow.

This year the final is played on a quick indoor surface at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, will Roddick learn the lessons and avenge last year’s defeat and give the USA a great chance of regaining the trophy and adding to their record 31 wins?

The tickets for the final sold-out just 30 minutes after going on sale with US fans hoping their team can produce the goods once more. “I think people get excited about an opportunity to cheer for America, whether it’s the women’s World Cup when they had so much success years ago, even the men’s World Cup last year. It’s exciting to cheer and get patriotic like that,” Blake said. “I think Davis Cup is a perfect opportunity.”

Whatever happens over the course of the weekend we can be sure there will be some thrilling tennis and I think there is every chance that this one will go right down to the wire. If I were to stick my neck out I’d have to say I think the player of the tie will be Mikhail Youzhny who always seems to produce his very best tennis playing for his country on the biggest of occasions. I wouldn’t bet against seeing his famous Russian salute at some point during the tie!