体坛英语新闻： Spain eyes sixth Davis Cup title

MADRID, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish Davis Cup tennis team looks to defend the title it won last year and take a huge step towards winning the tennis team tournament for the sixth time when they take on the United States in the semifinal in Gijon.

Spain will be without Rafael Nadal, who is out with a knee injury, but as usual the Spanish will be confident on their favorite beaten red clay surface in the north of Spain.

The Spanish will be optimistic that David Ferrer, in good form after reaching the semifinal of US Open last week, will get them off to a winning start against Sam Querrey in the first rubber which begins at mid-day local time.

The second singles rubber of the day sees Nicholas Almagro face the powerful John Isner, while Saturday sees the doubles as Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez play the Bryan borthers, Bob and Mike, who are considered the best doubles pairing in the world.

It promises to be evenly balanced between the two team, each of which has defeated the other of five occasions and the support of 15,000 fans could be a key factor in favor of the Spanish who beat the Americans in Austin, Texas in 2011 and in the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid a year earlier.

The other semifinal sees Argentina play the Cezeh Republic in Buenos Aires.