CYPRUS face Bulgaria in the Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group II playoffs starting today with the losers facing demotion from the division.
Cyprus have failed to defeat Bulgaria in all three of their previous meetings and will have to break this tradition in order to remain in the Europe/Africa Zone Group II for another season.
Four singles matches and one doubles played over the weekend at the National Tennis Centre courts in Nicosia will decide the outcome.
Yiannos Hadjigeorgiou, the captain of the Cyprus Davis Cup team, stressed the importance of the tie during yesterday’s press conference, while also pointing out the good form of his team. Mercos Baghdatis and Photos Kallias have enjoyed some good results over the past two months.
The players, led by Marcos Baghdatis urged tennis fans to come in great numbers in order to maximize the benefit of playing at home and support them to a victory.
The first match of the program is scheduled for today at 16:30. Tomorrow’s doubles match will start at 18:00. Tickets for the event are available at the venue and at the Cyprus Tennis Federation’s offices.
Due to great interest in the event the Cyprus Tennis Federation penned an agreement with Sigma TV to have a live broadcast of all of the matches.
Speaking ahead of the tie, President of the Cyprus Tennis Federation, Philios Christodoulou, said he was feeling confident of victory.
“We are a more mature team than the one that last faced Bulgaria,” he explained.
“We have learnt a lot from last year’s encounter and feel that we can beat them. They have a solid team but do not have any outstanding players, whereas we have Marcos.”
Nevertheless, he said that this is sport and anything can happen, with the Davis Cup often throwing up unpredictable results.
When asked whether too much is being expected from Baghdatis, Christodoulou responded by saying that is not the case.
“He is coming off a strong performance at Wimbledon but the tie is not all about him. Photos Kallias is also in very good shape at the moment and we expect some good performances from him.”
Bulgaria are led by their playing captain Ivaylo Traykov who is ranked 476th at the ATP Rankings, while their best ranked player is Todor Enev who is currently ranked 393. Apart from Traykov and Enev, Ilia Kushev and Yordan Kanev also traveled to face Cyprus.
Ivaylo Traykov said he was satisfied with their training at the press conference prior to his team’s arrival in Cyprus.
“Preparations are going perfectly well, and traditionally we have invited several potential national team players to take part in the preparations,” he said.
“It is always going to be difficult as we are playing away from home. We know that the Cyprus heat will just add a degree of difficulty to this tie,” he added.
Bulgaria lost away to Latvia 4-1 in the first round, with Traykov being the sole winner, while Cyprus was defeated 3-2 by Finland at home after Timo Nieminen beat Photos Kalias in the final match of the tie.
Last season, Bulgaria faced Cyprus in the first round in Varna and were victorious.
Traykov also recognized which aspects would probably influence the final outcome of the tie.
“I still do not know who will play in the doubles, as this match will probably be a decisive one. We are familiar with Marcos Baghdatis’ form, but one should never exclude a surprise. However, we are not underestimating the form of Photos Kalias as he almost won two futures recently.”
Cyprus lost its first ten Davis Cup ties before registering victory over Congo in 1994 in the Europe/Africa Zone Group III.
The island dropped to Group IV in 1997 and 1999-2001, but won promotion to Group II for 2006.
Schedule
Friday 20th at 4.30pm
PHOTOS KALLIAS Vs IVAYLO TRAYKOV
Followed by:
MARCOS BAGHDATIS Vs YORDAN KANEV
Saturday 21st at 6pm
MARCOS BAGHDATIS and PETROS BAGHDATIS Vs IVAYLO TRAYKOV and ILIA KUSHEV
Sunday 22nd at 4.30pm
MARCOS BAGHDATIS Vs IVAYLO TRAYKOV
Followed by:
PHOTOS KALLIAS Vs YORDAN KANEV
