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www 18 ITFWorld // SPRING 2018 singles rubbers he has played in the competition. "To play at home always is fantastic," Nadal said after his match with Kohlschreiber. "To come back after an injury is always difficult, and in front of my crowd, it was a little bit less." If this was a slightly rusty Nadal on display in Valencia, France, whom the Spaniards meet away in the semis, must be shaking in their chaussures at the prospect of a well- oiled version pitching up in September. As mighty as the Majorcan is, he is still not able to win a tie on his own, however. After Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez succumbed to defeat in the doubles, it was left to David Ferrer to put the disappointment of an opening day pasting by Zverev behind him and overcome Kohlschreiber in the tie's decider. To the delight of his fans and team, the world No. 33 and local boy complied, edging the German in a thrilling five-setter to extend his own impressive record in the Cup to 28 wins and five losses. Ferrer, 36, has also played a part in the last three of his country's Davis Cup triumphs, and with world No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta poised to return from injury, Spain undoubtedly possess the resources this year to progress towards a sixth title since 2000. France's Pouille, meanwhile, needs not dip too deeply into his past to summon the sensation of lifting the Davis Cup. The world No. 11 was one of France's heroes in November last year, bouncing back from defeat to Belgian David Goffin in the final's first rubber to beat Steve Darcis in its last. "That's why I decided to continue playing Davis Cup. I want to live this moment again," mused Pouille in the lead-up to his team's quarterfinal against Italy in Genoa. "It was an incredible feeling and it gave me a lot of confidence for this weekend as well. I try to take positive things from the final last year and try to be able to play my best tennis." The 24-year-old certainly had to show good form to prevail in a pair of testing encounters against the Italians, firstly in five sets over 26-tie veteran Andreas Seppi on Friday and then over the mercurial Fabio Fognini in four sets two days later. Sandwiched in between those hard-fought victories was Jeremy Chardy's loss to Fognini and the dismantling of Fognini and Simone Bolelli in straight sets by dynamic duo Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. Perennial winners on the tour, the former US Open and Wimbledon doubles champions have won five out of the six Cup rubbers they have contested together and surely must be considered almost a banked point for France each time they team up. Like Spain, France was deprived of the services of key personnel for the quarterfinals by injury. Presuming all make recoveries before September, captain Yannick Noah will have the luxury of choosing from Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon to bolster their bid to win an 11th title. Thoughts of his team's performance in the Davis Cup final last year might fill Pouille with warm fuzzies, but recollections of Croatia's tilt at the title in 2016 still give captain Zeljko Krajan restless nights. "Even today I sometimes have nightmares when I'm in the Davis Cup like this week," he explained after Croatia defeated Kazakhstan 3-1 in his hometown of Varazdin. "I'm dreaming about the final we lost [3-2 against Argentina]." Buoyed by the strong showing of his talisman, world No. 3 Cilic, who weathered a nervy start to his opening singles match against Dmitry Popko to produce a straight-sets win before going on to register an even more emphatic victory over counterpart Kukushkin, Krajan was quick to put a positive spin on tumbling at the final hurdle two years ago, however. France v Spain Croatia v USA 14-16 SEPTEMBER DAVIS CUP BY BNP PARIBAS SEMIFINALS D AV I S C U P B Y B N P PA R I B A S G E R M A N Y The German team in Valencia

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