Sweden take nothing for granted

Wimbledon, June 30: India's Davis Cup tie against Sweden in Bastaad may not inspire dreams of glory but the Swedes are not taking chances....

Wimbledon, June 30: India’s Davis Cup tie against Sweden in Bastaad may not inspire dreams of glory but the Swedes are not taking chances. Swedish non-playing captain Carl-Axel Hageskog, here to watch the various Swedes in action at The All-England Club, said: “Sweden is looking at a 5-0 scoreline but we will take nothing for granted. India is quite capable of springing surprises, so we will be working 100 per cent.”

The 46-year-old, who has been associated with the Swedish team since 1985, first as assistant coach, then coach and as captain since 1995, said he was happy the way his players were playing and added they should do well.

“Everything suits us. The players’ form, playing at home, the surface. And we have traditionally done well against India.”

Hageskog, who has seen Sweden lift the Cup in 1997 and 1998, reach the final in ’96 and the semis in ’95 as captain, added, “The tie would have been much tougher if Leander (Paes) had been playing. He is not just a good doubles player, he is capable of pulling off anything on his day.”

Meanwhile, though Hageskog refused to comment at the moment on whether world No 2 Magnus Norman would play the tie, Norman, following his second round loss to Belgian Olivier Rochus, had stated on Thursday that he “would be defending the title at Stuttgart and would not be playing the Davis Cup.”

The Swedish team is scheduled to be officially announced on July 10 but if the grapevine is to believed, then Mikael Tillstrom and Nicklas Kulti would play the doubles and the singles players might be Andreas Vinciguerra and Thomas Enqvist.