VOA常速英语2008年-US Begins Davis Cup Defense v Austria

By VOA Sports
Washington, DC
07 February 2008

The United States begins defense¹ of its Davis Cup tennis title this week when it takes on Austria in a World Group first round series indoors on clay in Vienna.

American Andy Roddick will play the opening singles match against Jurgen Melzer with James Blake taking on Stefan Koubek in the second match Friday.

The Bryan twins - Bob and Mike - will play Melzer and Julian Knowle in doubles Saturday. The reverse² singles are Sunday.

Meanwhile, Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia leads his team against Russia on hard courts indoors in Moscow. Djokovic, who captured his first major tournament title last month in Melbourne, faces Mikhail Youzhny in the opening singles match. Nikolay Davydenko of Russia plays Viktor Troicki in the second singles match.

Also this week, the Czech Republic plays Belgium on indoor carpet in Ostrava. Tomas Berdych opens the singles against Kristof Vligen at the CEZ Arena³. The series winner faces either Russia or Serbia.

Other best-of-five match series have Argentina facing Britain, Sweden plays Israel, Romania takes on France, Germany faces South Korea and Peru plays Spain. The winners this week will meet in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in April. The Davis Cup final is in November.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 reverse   

v.推翻，颠倒，反向；n.反面，逆境；adj.反向的

参考例句：

• His answer was just the reverse of what I expected.他的回答正好与我期望的相反。
• Please reverse the positions of two pictures.请把两张图片的位置倒转过来。

3 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。