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Thursday, April 4
 
Corretja says you still have to win on any given day

Reuters

HOUSTON -- Spain's Alex Corretja says his team of underdogs have nothing to fear ahead of this weekend's Davis Cup quarterfinal, despite the fact that it is being played on grass and they will face seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras.

Alex Corretja
Alex Corretja will be the workhorse for Spain playing in singles and doubles.

Although Sampras has won more matches at Wimbledon alone than the entire Spanish team has won on any grass court, clay-court specialist Corretja is convinced anything can happen when the action gets started at the Westside Tennis Club.

"Playing on grass I think gives him (Sampras) a little bit of an advantage," Corretja said with typical understatement style. "But still, you have to win on court.

"No matter if you win a lot of matches on grass or not, in one day you can beat anybody.

Corretja isn't ready to give up before the tie begins.

"We do have a chance, but it will not be easy for us," he said. "We are not used to playing on grass. We are trying to practice as much as we can these days to adjust our game as good as we can on grass.

Corretja says his team is getting in more practice than they usually have before going into a grass-court match.

"You have more days to practice than at Wimbledon because there are less guys," Corretja said. "Here you can practice at least four hours on grass per day so it is good for us. As I said, once you play one day and you have to play one match, anything can happen. We will have to play aggressive and forget about other things."

As well as being the Spanish singles stalwart with matches on Friday and Sunday, Corretja may also play in Saturday's doubles match.

"The good thing is we have two options. We have (Juan) Balcells and myself. We have Alberto Martin and myself so you never know (what the team will be)," he said.

"Maybe they can jump out on the court with other guys. It is good to see that Martin and myself have good rhythm on the court and we have been playing pretty well last week in Miami.

"If we have any other problems with the team we can just pick another player and play at the same level."






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