Israel will be looking to qualify for its first-ever Davis Cup semifinal when it takes on Russia in the Davis Cup quarterfinals this weekend.

The Israeli team are underdogs going into the encounter against a strong Russian team packed with experienced Davis Cup campaigners like Igor Andreev and Marat Safin.

The Israeli team has reached the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup on only one other occasion, when they met India in the quarterfinals of the 1987 Davis Cup only to lose every game.

However, the Israeli team is buoyant about their prospects after inflicting a surprise defeat on Sweden in March. The good form of top player, Dudi Sela, is also contributing to Israeli optimism ahead of the event.

The Israelis can also bank on a strong doubles partnership in the form of Australian Open doubles title winning pair, Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich.

“I think we will give the team the point it needs from the doubles match,” Ram told Reuters. “We can’t wait to start and play.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.