from Reuters
5 April 2003

VALENCIA, Spain, April 5 (Reuters) – Spanish captain Jordi Arrese believes that Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moya, Alex Corretja and Albert Costa together make up the strongest team the country has ever fielded in the Davis Cup.

“It’s the best Spanish team in history,” Arrese said after Corretja and Costa combined to beat Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic and Lovro Zovko 6-2 6-3 6-4 in the doubles on Saturday and give Spain a 3-0 winning lead in their World Group quarter-final.

“It’s just incredible. We can call on two leading singles players like Costa and Corretja to play doubles, as well as Ferrero and Moya for the singles. That means our players are all fresh for their matches.”

Spain won the Davis Cup for the first time in 2000, when Corretja, Ferrero and Costa were joined in the team by Juan Balcells.
The return of Moya to the side in place of Balcells means three of the four players are in the top 10, while Corretja, currently the world number 18, is likely to start climbing back up the rankings soon.

“We won’t necessarily stick with Ferrero and Moya in the singles,” Arrese said. “We’ll take a decision ahead of each match. This team gives us a lot of options.”

Spain will go on to face Argentina or Russia in the semi-finals, with the Argentines strong favourites after taking a 2-0 lead against the defending champions on the opening day.

“If it’s Argentina we’ll be delighted, because it means we’ll be at home,” said Corretja.

“They’ll be strong rivals for us as they’re one of the best teams on clay but being at home would give us a major advantage. We’re playing well at the moment and we’re very confident.

“We always believed we could beat Croatia in the doubles. We returned very well from the start and just made it more and more difficult for them as the match went on.”

Spain’s next opponent will be Argentina. Spain can also chose on what kind of surface they want to play and they will play in their own country. So I think the surface will be clay.