Monaco Davis Cup team – From left to right Guillaume Couillard, Thomas Oger, Benjamin Balleret, Jean-Rene Lisnard & Captain Christophe Boggetti

Monaco will host Latvia this weekend at the Monte-Carlo Country Club in the second round of Davis Cup Europe/Africa Group II of 16 nations, bidding to make Group I status.  Having played Davis Cup since 1929, reached the Europe/Africa zone Group I semi-finals several times. Captain Christophe Boggetti said his team is ready for the challenge, and welcomes the clay court advantage while the opponents prefer the fastest hard court. On the other side of the ring, Captain Karlis Lejnieks feels confident of a victory having on board the 24 year old Ernests Gulbis who is No. 55 in the ATP singles and the highest ranked player in the group. The last time Latvia qualified for Group I was in 2010. Gulbis said that they come from a small country so its difficult to find good players, but I wonder how Latvia’s total area of 64,589 Km2 compares to Monaco’s 2,02 Km2, I would say sometimes size does not matter.

After the Press Conference I met Zeljko Franulovic who had moved his office to the terrace to work on the last details of the organization of the upcoming Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, the first of three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments played on clay, that will start on Saturday, April 13 through 21 and will bring to the MCCC the best tennis players in the world including 9 of the 10 first ranked by the ATP.

Below is the Davis Cup program at the MCCC, 155 Avenue Princesse Grace, Roquebrune, Cap Martin – Tel +33 4 93 41 30 15

Friday, April 5 at 10 :45 Presentation of the teams followed by the two first singles
Saturday, April 6 at 13 :00 – Doubles match
Sunday, April 7 at 11 :00 the two last singles

Photos by: Celina Lafuente de Lavotha