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DAVIS CUP FIRST ROUND: USA VS SWITZERLANDJanuary 31, 2017Severin LuthiHenri LaaksonenMarco ChiudinelliAdrien BosselAntoine BellierBirmingham, Alabama THE MODERATOR: Questions for the Swiss Davis Cup team. Q. Obviously you have another Grand Slam champion in Roger Federer, who of course is not here. The team that you have here, is there any concern that you're not viewed as strong of a team as you might have been? My guess is not. Some people might consider this a B team. That is not a fair assessment, is it? CAPTAIN LUTHI: No. I mean, obviously it's always the same. Most people know the two players. But, yeah, we have the best players behind them here. We're going to try to do our best and give 100%. We'll also try to improve this week. All the rest really doesn't matter for us. Q. Coach, were you a part of the team that was here six, seven years ago? CAPTAIN LUTHI: Yeah, I was here. It was 2009. Q. What have you been able to tell these guys about what to expect or what that experience was like here that time, here in Birmingham? CAPTAIN LUTHI: Marco was also here. He played two matches, so he also knows about that. Yeah, sure, I mean, we're going to talk about that this week. But it's going to be different, I think, this time. It's not the same players, not the same teams. I think it's a very nice stadium you have here. Yeah, at the moment it's still far away. Try to prepare ourselves and be ready for Friday. Q. Marco, what do you remember from your experience here seven years ago? MARCO CHIUDINELLI: Well, the tie itself was actually a nice tie with not the result we wished for. Yeah, I mean, I remember Stan started with the win against James Blake. I lost to Andy Roddick. It was quite a full stadium, a very nice crowd. Saturday was quite a tight doubles, four sets with the Bryan brothers, who the crowd loved out here, against Stan and Yves Allegro. It was a very nice tie. Obviously we were disappointed not having won it, but good memories still. Q. Severin, what would you consider the strength of this squad? CAPTAIN LUTHI: Yeah, I think they're all very good. They don't depend on one player only. They can obviously change. At the moment we don't know what to expect exactly. Our squad or their squad? Q. Your squad. CAPTAIN LUTHI: I was answering for the American squad. What do you want to know about our squad? Q. What do you consider the things that fans across the world would expect to see from your squad in playing this week? CAPTAIN LUTHI: I think one of our strengths is really that the players we have here, especially Marco and Henri, who played more matches already in Davis Cup, they're always playing well. They give all the time 100%. They're ready to fight. Yeah, they had good results in Davis Cup. I think that's one of our big strengths. With Antoine, we have a rather young player who is playing the first time last year and helped us staying in the Group. With Adrien also we won the doubles there. Obviously we're completely outsiders here, but as I said, we're going to try our best and give 100%. Q. Coach and Marco, since you've been here in Birmingham, away from the arena, what are your thoughts and impressions of the city itself? MARCO CHIUDINELLI: Well, yeah, it's actually a bit difficult to answer because as at a lot of the tournaments as well, as tennis players, a lot of times you just get to see the airport, the hotel and the courts. We have always two sessions every day. For example today, we have breakfast here with you guys, then we have a session from 12 to 3, followed by another session from 5 to 7. All the time we have, we're going to use it for recovery afterwards, quick treatment, dinner, back to bed. We really didn't have a chance to explore much. Maybe we will in the next few days. This time we're staying right next to the arena, which saves us some time. Maybe we have some chances to check out a nice place for dinner. I remember last time we stayed away from the site. It was a 45-minute drive, so it was absolutely impossible to have free time to visit or see something. Maybe tomorrow or the day after. Q. Talk a little bit about what you expect to see from the Americans, Severin. CAPTAIN LUTHI: Yeah, very strong team. I don't know exactly their ranking. They're all very high ranked. All of them can play singles and doubles. They're not like doubles specialists, only playing doubles, but we know they already had great results also in doubles. Yeah, for sure they're going to be favorites in all matches. Q. You mentioned doubles. The Americans have become accustomed to having the Bryan brothers representing them on the middle day of the tie. They won't be here. They retired from Davis Cup. Does that give you a little bit more encouragement that you might be able to take that day? CAPTAIN LUTHI: Honestly, I don't think that it's a big advantage because they have more flexibility like that for singles also. When they had the brothers in the team, you knew which players are going to play singles. Now, like I mentioned, I think all four players can also play doubles. They can change. They can wait and see how the matches on Friday went. I don't think that it's an advantage for us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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