Tennis: Nadal plays down Davis Cup pressure

Insists that playing at home did not increase the pressure.

SEVILLE:

World number two Rafael Nadal played down the pressure the hosts will be under ahead of their Davis Cup final against Argentina this weekend. Spain have won the title four times in the past 10 years but Argentina have never lifted the trophy, finishing runner-up three times.

But team leader Nadal insisted that playing at home did not increase the pressure. “We’re under the same pressure as they are, we have to win the Davis Cup,” said Nadal. The Spaniard will spearhead a team which includes Fernando Verdasco, Feliciano Lopez and David Ferrer, the same line-up that clinched Spain’s last Davis Cup triumph in 2009 against the Czech Republic.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2011.