The Draw of the Davis Cup World Group match between Italy and Switzerland took place at the Teatro Rossini in Pesaro named after Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini. The first round match will be held from Friday to Sunday in the Adriatic Arena, well known as the “Spaceship”.
A star-studded Swiss team led by Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka beat Italy in the 2014 Davis Cup semifinal in the previous head-to-head match between these two countries in Geneva. This time around Switzerland without the two big stars will face a very tough task against home team Italy. Federer is recovering from his recent knee surgery and Wawrinka is taking a week of rest after his recent win in Dubai. Italy will not feature their most prominent star Fabio Fognini, who has been recently sidelined by an abdominal injury.
In-form Italian Paolo Lorenzi, World Number 54, will play against Swiss Marco Chiudinelli in the openining match on Friday. Lorenzi, who is ranked 92 places ahead of Chiudinelli, won a ATP Challenger in Canberra before enjoying a successful red clay season in South Africa in which he reached the final at the Claro Open Bucaramanga, a Challenger tournament in Colombia, the semifinal at the ATP 250 in Quito and the quarter finals at the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires (where he lost to Rafa Nadal). Lorenzi pushed Marin Cilic to the fifth set in his only previous Davis Cup singles match.
Chiudinelli, who comes from Basel and is a good friend of Roger Federer, has represented Switzerland in the Davis Cup for 11 years. He recently won a ATP Challenger in Wroclaw (Poland).
In the second singles World Number 40 Andreas Seppi will take on 23-year-old Henri Laaksonen, who is ranked 134 points behind the Italian experienced player in the ATP Ranking. Seppi reached the third round at this year’s Australian Open.
and reached the quarter finals in Sofia. Laaksonen, who represented his native country Finland in the Davis Cup in the past, won two epic five-set matches to push last year’s Davis Cup first round match between Switzerland and Belgium to the decisive fifth rubber.
Simone Bolelli, who won the doubles title last week with Andreas Seppi in Dubai last week, will team up with Davis Cup debutant Marco Cecchinato in Saturday’s doubles against Laaksonen and Chiudinelli.
In Sunday’s reverse rubber matches Seppi will take on Chiudinelli before Lorenzi meets Laaksonen.
Italy and Switzerland are tied 3-3 in their previous head-to-head Davis Cup matches. Switzerland won their last three head-to-head matches by the same score of 3-2.
