November 14, 2008, Barcelona, Spain – The Spanish team captain, Sanchez Vicario has made the final decision of making the 56th-ranked tennis player, Marcel Granollers, to serve as replacement for Rafael Nadal on the Davis Cup finals against Argentina.
Aside from Granollers, several other top players were considered for Rafael’s spot on the Spanish Davis Cup team. These other players included Nicolas Almagro, Tommy Robredo and even Juan Carlos Ferrero the former world number 1 tennis player. However, Vicario chose to use Granollers on the team as he was currently in much better shape than the other players.
Although Granollers is still unknown to many, he has won both the singles and doubles titles at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship held earlier this year. Vicario announced that aside from letting Granollers play in the singles, he could also play well in the doubles match.
Argentinians are celebrating Nadal’s absence because without him, the Argentine is the favorite pick to win the Davis Cup finals. The Argentine Davis Cup team is composed of Juan Martin del Potro, David Nalbandian, Jose Acasuso and Agustin Calleri.
Pedro Munoz, the Spanish tennis federation president, refuses to believe that the Argentinean’s should have anything to celebrate about. Since Sanchez Vicario is making sure that the Spanish team trains hard, the team still has a great chance at winning the Davis Cup finals.