Russians aim to cement Davis Cup favorite status after group victories

"Of course, everybody arrived here to win the title," said Aslan Karatsev, who is in the Top 20 but still the third-highest ranked singles player on the team behind No. 2 Daniil Medvedev and No. 5 Andrey Rublev.

No other country has such a strong line-up, and the Russian men are pumped up for a potential sweep following Russia's win in the women's BJK Cup.

The RTF (or Russian Tennis Federation) team is into the quarterfinals following a win against defending champions Spain.

"Everybody is super happy. We want to win, no matter it’s an exhibition match, a match that doesn’t count maybe for the tie, or an important match," Medvedev said. "Our goal is to win. It’s very important for the confidence of the team to win against such team as Spain. Even if they didn’t have their best line-up, they are playing at home, and to beat them means a lot."

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We are really happy to be in the quarterfinals. We are going to do our best to go further. Two years ago, we were in the semifinals. Andrey Rublev

They will again be heavy favorites in their next tie when they play Sweden in the quarterfinals. Rublev, who did not win his singles rubber in the tie against Spain, will aim to secure a quarterfinal point for his team.

"We are really happy to be in the quarterfinals. We are going to do our best to go further. Two years ago, we were in the semifinals,” he said.

The Russians could come up against Serbia, led by No.1 Novak Djokovic, in the finals. But in the previous round, the Serbians were cheering them on—a win for Russia also allowed Serbia to go through in the round-robin portion of the competition.

"It's funny, because during the match, we are already receiving some messages from some people from Serbia," said Medvedev.

The Russian tie against Sweden is in Madrid.