One day you are an idiot, and the next day a genius. That is the captain of a Davis Cup team."
That's how Niki Pilic sums up the lot of a Davis Cup captain, and he speaks as one with plenty of experience in the hot seat. He won the title as captain four times, (West Germany ’88,’89, ‘93, Croatia ‘05) and has recently taken on the task of getting Serbia to the promised land of tennis’ team competition.
Pilic certainly has the pedigree, and but it's his results that have given him the credibility among both players and federation bosses alike. Captains are often former players, sometimes even legends, but playing achievements provide no guarantees for success.
ANATOMY OF A GOOD CAPTAIN
According to Pilic, a good captain needs four things: personality, cleverness, communication skills and backbone.
"The last may be the most important," said Pilic. "There are times when you have to draw the line with not only the players, but with people who try to attach [themselves] to the team and often cause distractions."
He also points to the job description once given by former world No. 1 Thomas Muster, who later took the helm of the Austrian Davis Cup team: "The captain has to be the guy that can bring a good atmosphere to the team, and a man who can do a lot of things to save the players trouble."
Mats Wilander, who leads the Swedish team, has discovered that being the general can be more fun than being one of the soldiers.
"As the captain, I love it," said Wilander. "I feel like I have a direct influence in all five matches. And once the tie begins, I am very much involved in the tactics of each match, and of course, the emotional part of the match as well. It is a greater responsibility than being just a player. It's a lot of fun."
The bigger Davis Cup is in a country, the more pressure there is on the captain. There are few places where Davis Cup is as high profile as Australia, something John Fitzgerald is well aware of. His predecessors include John Newcombe, Neale Fraser and perhaps the most legendary captain of them all -- Harry Hopman.
"It is sobering in some ways to be captain of Australia's Davis Cup team, because of the history we have and the captains that have gone before me," admits 'Fitzy.' "It certainly is a great honor."
PUTTING TOGETHER A TEAM
Fitzgerald believes one of his main roles is to infuse the famed Aussie team spirit into Davis Cup gatherings.
"When you realize that players are with their own coaches playing individual tournaments for 90% of the year and with the team for probably only 10%, it becomes apparent that people management is one of the most important issues in this job," said Fitzgerald. "When we are together for a tie, we eat as a team every night. And we have the occasional round of golf for relaxation and continually find competitive pursuits to compete against each other for 'bragging rights'. At our last tie, the losing team at ten-pin bowling had to come down to breakfast the next morning in their dressing gowns and slippers.
But building a bond doesn't require isolation from everyone else, he adds. "I am a big believer in having players happy with their environment and family situations when they have to play under pressure so if players want to be at the tie with or without their spouse that is fine with me. I have not had to deal with any intrusive coaches or individuals during ties because the culture is very clear and historically the leaders of Australian teams have led by example in this regard."
Teams usually only have one week together before the Davis Cup competition begins. Getting everyone on board and on the same page is often easier said than done.
That's why John Lloyd, captain of Great Britain, also names "people skills" as a key ingredient in being an effective captain.
"Working with each of the players and their respective schedules, and their needs and balancing all of that with the team’s needs can be a real challenge," he said. "Sometimes just selecting the final player of the team can be hard. If you do not have an automatic doubles team like the US, then selecting that fourth player can be very difficult. Who do you go with? An extra doubles specialist or another singles player?"
CONFLICTS & CHALLENGES
A yearago, Robert Lindstedt of Sweden was ready to play. He was hitting the ball well and it was to be his first time playing Davis Cup when captain Mats Wilander pulled him from the doubles line-up with minutes to go.
"It ripped my heart out," Lindstedt recalled. "Mats [Wilander] told me at the beginning of the week that I would play, and now it was Saturday and we [Lindstedt and doubles partner Jonas Bjorkman] had already warmed up for the match. I was more than ready to play, I was about to have my dream come true."
"That definitely," admitted Wilander, "was the hardest decision that I have ever had to make in Davis Cup. Although, secretly, I knew all week that I would not play him. But I wanted to see how practiced, ate, slept, warmed up, and how he would handle the pressure."
While Lindstedt would eventually play doubles for Sweden in future ties and is now firmly embedded in the team, his relationship with Wilander was put to the test.
Sometimes a conflict can have tangible consequences. In India, a land rich in tennis tradition, Leander Paes holds many of the country's tennis milestones. But even those achievements could not protect the playing captain from the wrath of his teammates – claiming that he undermined the team spirit, they threatened to boycott April's tie against Japan unless Paes was sacked.
Team members Mahesh Bhupati, Prakash Amritraj, Rohan Bopanna and Karan Rastogi sent a letter to the Indian federation, saying they had lost confidence in Paes and criticized him for repeatedly running them down in the media. "We are not prepared to play Davis Cup if Leander is captain," the Times of India reported the letter as saying.
"Playing Davis Cup for India is our greatest joy," Amritraj told the paper. "We live for these ties, and through the year we prepare ourselves so we can peak for these occasions. He [Paes] has basically killed that joy for us."
At the last moment the two sides agreed to a temporary reconciliation, but Paes' captaincy did not last much longer. In August, he announced he was stepping down.
THE COMPETITIVE CAULDRON
Guy Forget of France, who won two Davis Cup titles – in 1991 as a player and again in 2001 as the captain – describes some of the challenges inherent in his current post.
"Sometimes as captain you have to make team selection decisions based on chemistry and not just rankings," Forget said. "And that can be very difficult to do, as politics and personal relationships often get involved. No matter how hard you try to explain, there are always one or two players who feel like they have been treated unfairly."
"A good team needs either a leader that is so good that he leads by winning all of his matches like Ivan Lubjicic of Croatia in ‘05," Forget continued. "Or a united team that becomes very competitive due to its togetherness. Our team in ’01 was not the most talented team that year, but it was an extremely united in the pursuit of winning the cup."
Different players also respond differely to the demands of Davis Cup play, another another element to the volatile mix.
"Michael Stich once lost a match where he had nine match points," Pilic recalled, referring to the 1995 semifinal against Russia, when Stick lost 14-12 in the fifth set of the deciding singles to Andrei Chesnokov.
"It was just unbelievable. The pressure of Davis Cup is not normal, and I have tremendous respect for any player that can perform and execute in Davis Cup. The pressure can make or break a player. Rankings do not mean much once the match begins."
John Lloyd added: "The pressure is what makes it so difficult. Having your teammates and your country hanging on every point and wanting, and often expecting you to win can be brutal. Executing under such scrutiny can be very difficult."
And not just for the players. "For the captain it can be nerve wracking!"