* !Picby Pete Bodo*
In the post-tie press conference following the USA's stunning 5-0 Davis Cup win in Fribourg, Switzerland, a reporter pointed out to U.S. captain Jim Courier that at least two members of his squad—Ryan Harrison and John Isner—refer to him with considerable deference as "captain Courier" (as opposed to "Jim," or "dude," or "bro").
Thoroughly pleased but unwilling to take the bait, Courier downplayed the point. "I keep thinking they're going to say Captain Crunch," he said, referring to the popular, sweet breakfast cereal.
Bear in mind that it's a short leap from that comic appellation to "Captain Crunch-Time," and wouldn't every Davis Cup captain on the planet love to be thought of that way? Let's be clear: Courier's future as Davis Cup captain did not hinge on this World Group first-round tie (the Swiss were the clear and obvious favorites), but this was a win that the U.S. really needed. For its self-image. For its pride. For its necessary, if not necessarily realistic, conviction that it can and must remain among the elite nations in tennis.
This was a triumph that suggested that we may be on the brink of a bright new era in U.S. Davis Cup annals, and it confirmed that this now is Courier's team—even if it's his third tie, and just his second win.
You'll remember that Courier presided over a dispiriting 3-1 loss to Spain last July, but let's face it—that tie was a tribute to the U.S. veteran, Andy Roddick. And for the better part of a decade, the U.S. Davis Cup team was the creature of Roddick and captain Patrick McEnroe. The tug of the old was still very powerful when Courier took the helm, and that makes it easier to understand how it all went so wrong in Courier's debut. The decision to host the tie in Roddick's adopted hometown of Austin. Tx., was, on the face of it, an attractive idea as well as an honor well-earned by the American vet. But some kind of karma kicked in and that was that.
Note that in Austin, Roddick took a pass on playing his second singles match. He lost his first match to David Ferrer, and didn't have it in him to play that fifth, "dead rubber" after Spain had clinched the tie. That's not an uncommon decision; Roger Federer did the same thing on Sunday. But note that John Isner, the U.S. player who beat Federer on that first day of play, provided the fifth point in the 5-0 triumph over the Swiss on Sunday. Isner is young, and that's part of it. He also was coming off a big win, and that's another part of it. But it doesn't tell the whole story.
Some may interpret this 5-0 whitewash as an excessive show of force—"running up the score," in the football patois—but I don't view it that way. The tie was at least partly decided by the attitude brought to the clash by the U.S. team, which was relentlessly positive and, more important, aggressive. This was a ravenous squad, and Ryan Harrison and Isner certainly gave those Day 3 ticket holders a better show than fans got at some other ties that were decided by the end of the doubles.
But more important, the impact of Captain Crunch-Time and his attitude on this team was obvious from Day 1, when Mardy Fish reversed a terrible tendency to choke late in big matches. In two of his last five Davis Cup matches, Fish lost the plot and took a painful 8-6 in-the-fifth loss (one to Feliciano Lopez, another to Marin Cilic). This time, Fish allowed a match point to get away form him, but he still went on to win, 9-7 in the fifth. I think Courier's aplomb in the captain's chair helped Fish through his crisis.
And John Isner has been waiting patiently, like everyone else, to do what everyone has said he's capable of—playing a big game to bring down a big name on a big occasion. Looking back on his win over Federer, he said:
"Like Captain Courier said, I do realize now, no matter the surface, no matter the opponent, a lot of times, the ball, the point, the match is going to be in my control no matter who I'm playing, no matter if it's Roger Federer or somebody who isn't even ranked. . .Even though he's (Courier) not going to be in my corner, I really have to make a conscious effort of doing everything in the future that I did this week."
That ought to tell you it was a pretty good week.
After he won his fourth-match dead rubber, Ryan Harrison also praised his captain. "I think for me, it's my first tie with Captain Courier. Obviously he has a reputation since the days he played about being one of the hardest?working, toughest guys out there. Growing up, hearing about the way he played is one thing. Then actually being a part of it, seeing the way he is just day-in and day-out about everything. . . to see the way that he handles things on a day?to?day basis, the way he's organized, structured. For someone like myself at this point in my career where I'm trying to be exactly that: more organized and more structured. So to be a part of this this week was a huge experience."
Alright. We all know that Ryan can get a little bit Dudley Do-right; he's 19, going on 54. But those qualities he cites are critical ones and they certainly helped shape this result. As Courier himself said: "We did everything we needed to do in the build-up this week to play well this week When you do that, you give yourself a great chance. There's no real secret sauce to working hard and working smart. It's doing it time and time again.
"Hopefully it continues to flow through. But we're going to lose. We've already lost. We'll lose tough ones, we'll win tough ones, but we're going to do it right and we'll do it the best we can. But doing it right is the most important thing."
It's a great start to a new era in U.S. Davis Cup history. Let's see where it takes us.