Although at the moment in different scenarios, the main part of the dispute of the silver salad bowl will be in Madrid, where for the moment group A will be ahead of the favorite Russia, Spain and Ecuador.
On paper, Ecuador has the weakest team with Emilio Gómez, Roberto Quiroz, Diego Hidalgo, Antonio March and Gonzalo Escobar, while Spain as host aspires to surprise despite the absence of Rafael Nadal, who is recovering from a injury.
The Iberians, led by former tennis player Sergi Bruguera, will be supported by the rising young Carlos Alcaraz, the Olympic bronze medalist Pablo Carreño and tour players such as Roberto Bautista and Feliciano López, along with Marcel Granollers. However, the reflectors point to the Russian squad, which in addition to Medvedev has Andrei Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Aslan Karatsev.
In Innsbruck, due to the measures against Covid-19 adopted by the Austrian Government, the matches will be behind closed doors.
There the series C and F will be developed, in the latter with Serbia as the favorite from the presence of Djokovic, against Germany and Austria
The C will have France, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, while in Turin, Italy, will be the groups D and E that have Croatia, Australia and Hungary, and the United States, Italy and Colombia, respectively.
Canada, the top candidate, Sweden and Kazakhstan start this Thursday at the Madrid Arena, with the duels between Canadians and Swedes.
The Spanish capital will also host two rounds of the quarterfinals, the semi-finals and the final on December 5.
They qualify with a direct pass the first place of each series and only the two best second places of the six keys that will be developed in this phase.
“The pandemic always conditions, but all the players have already regularized this (…) we have a very strong, very good team and we will fight for the maximum we can,” said Bruguera around the local squad.
jf / ft