Barcelona, Spain – Albert Costa was named Spain’s Davis Cup captain for the 2009 Davis Cup last Thursday. Spain has nothing to fear with a winner leading their team to another victory in the coming Davis Cup, not that Spain has anything to worry about since they were just fresh off their 2008 Davis Cup win, beating team Argentina.
Spain couldn’t have picked a better and more capable player than Albert Costa to lead the Davis Cup team. Costa is a former French Open champion when he won the major championship back in the year 2002 and has 12 ATP singles titles recorded in his playing career. This isn’t Costa’s first time to be involved in the Davis Cup; in fact, he was a member of Spain’s first Davis Cup winning team in 2000. Currently, he is coaching another tennis player by the name of Feliciano Lopez.
Costa will replace Emilio Sanchez Vicario, who decided to step down from the position of captain after leading the Spanish team to a third Davis Cup victory. Vicario hand-picked Costa and pushed for him to become the new captain of the Davis Cup team. Though it was an unlikely announcement of retirement, after having won the Davis Cup in the absence of Rafael Nadal, Costa accepts the invitation with open arms and even stated that it would be a hard job filling the position once occupied by Vicario.
This is a great honor Costa, equally great as his win in the 2002 French Open. Costa’s first debut as captain of the Spanish Davis Cup Team will be in the first round of the World Group match from March 6 to 8 where they will be playing against Serbia.