ITF

THEY MAY HAVE BEEN SEPARATED BY SEVEN TIME ZONES AND THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, BUT USA CAPTAIN JIM COURIER AND KAZAKH spearhead Mikhail Kukushkin were tuned into the same wavelength on the eve of their respective quarterfinal ties. "The Davis Cup is a unique competition and your personal rankings don't matter here because you are competing for your country," noted Kukushkin. "You just have to go out and give it your best." "The tennis ball never cares where you're from, it doesn't care where you're ranked. It only goes where it's told to go," echoed Courier a few hours later. There was credence to what both men said, as demonstrated by a number of tight matches and world No. 92 Kukushkin himself, who rebounded from a set down to overwhelm Croat Borna Coric, a player ranked 64 places above him. Yet, it was also true that this was a weekend of ties in which the winning teams' No. 1 players – Rafael Nadal, Lucas Pouille, Marin Cilic and John Isner– were all able to exert their wills better on court than their lower-ranked opposition and emerge undefeated. It was no surprise, of course, that 16-time Grand Slam champion and world No. 1 Nadal remained faithful to his lofty standing, chalking up straight-set wins against Philipp Kohlschreiber and Alexander Zverev to help Spain beat Germany 3-2 on the clay in Valencia. Admittedly, world No. 4 Zverev was still suffering the effects of jetlag, having played the final of the Miami Open – where he lost to Isner – less than a week earlier; yet, Nadal could claim the encumbrances associated with an extended break from competitive tennis, the result of a leg injury sustained at the Australian Open in January. The two wins took the four-time Davis Cup winner to 24 victories from the 25 S P A I N World No. 1 Rafael Nadal was in majestic form against Germany ITFWorld // SPRING 2018 17 The US team flies the flag in Nashville U S A ➝

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