Howdy. Had three great days at the farm, a lot of it spent climbing mountains of bluestone rubble in the quarry with Cowboy Luke, wrenching on the tractor, stuff like that. . . Then I rushed home to activate the Tennis Channel for Sunday’s fireworks from MissionHills and guess what – the cable operator’s system had been down all day, and they couldn’t guarantee me access to TTC for at least 48 hours.
Great. So I’ve been picking Steve Tignor's brain and poring over reports and your comments to the post below (“Pau Goes Pow!”) to try to figure it all out. My gut reactions:
This weekend once again demonstrated the beauty and joy (not to mention fun) of Davis Cup, and that most sports editors in the U.S.’s mainstream media are either really myopic, dumb as posts, or criminally insane for perpetuating what amounts to a de facto boycott of Davis Cup coverage.
Croatians were living and dying by the medical updates on Mario Ancic’s back (and David Nalbandian's juicy, bulletin-board grade comments about Big Red). The French were living and dying by Richard Gasquet’s artful strokes. Aussies were welling up in tears at the sight of recently slumping Little Lleyton Hewitt, ripping some big lug from Belarus to shreds.
But who knew, here in the U.S. At best, they maybe heard that Chile was giving the U.S. all it could handle on Day 1. In fact, on Friday night, the homeboys in red-white-and-blue could be forgiven for exchanging those looks that translated to, “No, we can’t lose to friggin’ Chile. . . can we?”
Dead tree captives across the American nation should be writing “cancel my subscription” letters right about now. The whole situation here in the U .S. with Davis Cup and the media makes me want to puke. Maybe I’ll move to a more tennis-friendly nation – I know, Argentina!
Whoops.
I mean, the James Blake Day 1 choke is an important story; did your local paper, Mr./Ms. Suburban tennis nut, carry anything significant on it? Andy Roddick, who’s been struggling, steps up and clinches the win over tougher-than-they-look Chile by taking out Fernando Gonzalez - you know, he whom they call Gonzo. . . the guy who whales on the ball and couldn’t care less where it lands (meaning a remarkably dangerous guy, once he’s gotten to a certain point in life – that point being the Top 50 among ATP pros).
Did anyone you read, or watched on news broadcasts, really bring the stakes, or Roddick’s performance, to life?
The U.S., once a Davis Cup powerhouse, is in the throes of a Superpower meltdown that makes global warming look like a mere warming trend. Nothing underscores that better than recent DC history. We’ve won a record 31 Davis Cup titles, but none since 1995, in what may be the world's third most prestigious and well-known (after World Cup soccer the Olympic games) international sports festival. People all over the America-bashing world are dying happy at this turn of events.
But does anyone in the sophisticated, elite, U.S. media care? Naw, not a story. But the Red Sox trade a relief pitcher and the pee is running down their legs. It's Pathetic.
Argentina is looking better and better; I always wanted to be a gaucho and they have great dry fly fishing and big stags. I take it all back about the doping Argies, my amigos, and do the local stores carry handloading supplies?
But let’s skate over the wrong-headedness of the U.S. media and savor the glory of Davis Cup – the glory that so many potentially receptive fans in the U.S. don’t even know they’re missing. Just think of it this way, fellow Davis Cup KADs: it’s one of those groovy we-got-our-own-thang-goin-on deals.
The Mikhail Youzhny Grace Under Fire award goes to: Dmitry Tursunov, for the astonishing nerves and heart he showed in rebounding from a 2-1 deficit in sets to beat France’s Richard Gasquet, in the fourth - and deciding – rubber. The match took place in Pau, no less, deep in the heart of French tennis country.
Tursunov, just 14-9 in singles matches this year and ranked No., 34 going into the Davis Cup tie, was a last-minute replacement for Russia’s injured No. 2, the accomplished Top Tenner Nikolay Davydenko. The way Tursunov rose to the occasion reminded us of that enchanted 2002 final round performance (also in France) that earned Russia its first Davis Cup title thanks to – yep, Mikhail Youzhny.
The Golden Woody goes to Mike and Bob Bryan, for once again demonstrating what the Australian Woodys, Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, along with many other fine squads (including the U.S.’s John McEnroe and Peter Fleming) helped drill home: in Davis Cup, doubles is huge. So much so, that you can probably establish a strong correlation between great doubles teams and great Davis Cup runs (anyone of you doubles geeks care to run some numbers on this?).
The fact is, in an era when almost any developed nation on earth – and some that are still developing - has at least one world class player capable of beating anyone on a given day, the pivotal third match, on Day 2, which is always the doubles, may be the most important rubber of any tie. It’s the difference between going into the last two singles just one win away from elimination and the pressures that brings to bear.
Our MVD (Most Valuable Doper) award goes Juan Ignacio Chela, the former drug cheat who got flung into a true nightmare scenario and emerged as a national hero leading Argentina’s advance to the semifinals.
Imagine this: You’re playing the defending champs, but hey – you’re just a schmoe, the No. 3 singles guy behind David Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri. You’re playing the holders on their home turf – where they haven’t lost since 1999. Big Red (Croatia) has already thrown your squad a few curveballs, starting with the unexpected scratch of their No. 2 singles star, Mario Ancic.
Your squad claws its way to a 2-1 lead after the doubles, and the next morning your captain blithely names you as a substitute singles player – meaning that in all likelihood, you will have to play the critical match of the tie, away, against the top-rated team.
Want another mickey in that drink? Big Red does a little maneuvering of its own, yanking No. 2 singles man Marin Cilic, who got waxed by Nalbandian in the second singles match, in favor of completely unknown Sasa Tuksar.
And it’s not like this guy is unknown for no reason. Never before has he played a Davis Cup live rubber (a match that take place before the outcome of the tie is decided), he’s never played a five-set match at the pro level. In fact, he’s got just eight matches under his belt. That’s right, career total. Which also means that when it comes to scouting, nobody even has any idea of whether Tuksar is righty or lefty – never mind what his groundies or serve are like.
Only in Davis Cup, folks. If you don’t see why this is the kind of scenario that makes Davis Cup stalwarts awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, you haven’t been paying attention to this competition. That’s okay, it’s only a hundred years old, give or take a few decades!
Anyway, Chela ultimately prevailed in a four-hour, 21-minute grindfest to move Argentina along into the next round. All kidding about doping aside, this was an epic feat of psychological strength and stamina by Chela in an excruciatingly tough position. Hats off to him.
The Jeremy Bates Award for shrewd captaincy goes to Argentina’s Alberto Mancini. He used four different players and only Nalbandian did double duty, playing two singles and the doubs. Both of Mancini’s surprise substitutions paid off: Jose Acasuso was part of the winning doubles squad, and Chela. . . well, he probably wanted to kill Mancini (see MVD, above) but it all worked out for the best.
(If you don’t know why the award is named for Jeremy Bates, click here http://66.232.148.140/blogs/tennisworld/entry.asp?ENTRY_ID=220).
The Ilieaward for poor sportsmanship goes to Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez, for the two time outs he took in the course of his win over James Blake (Jerry Magee has the ugly details here).
Regular comment poster Ruth has been on a jag lately about this issue and I’m 100 per cent with her. “Lack of conditioning” (as opposed to a specific, real injury) is not a legitimate reason for calling a time out, and the ATP and WTA Tours should crack down on the practice.
Nastase, older readers will remember, was the greatest gamesman and cheater of the Open era.
The How Hard Can it Be? award goes to James Blake, for opening the U.S. vs. Chile match with that heartbreaking five-set loss (the match hit 4:20) to Gonzalez. This was Blake’s moment for coming to grips with the perils and joys of Davis Cup play, but the message was clear: He still has issues with the Davis Cup gestalt. This, regrettably, has ominous implications for the U.S. squad’s chances in the semifinal against host Russia.
And let’s not be too tough on James. Davis Cup is themost gag-friendly event in tennis, perhaps in all of sports. Guys routinely bark up rainbows before they go out to play – and those are the good competitors. Wayne Arthurs, the Aussie old hand, put it beautifully when describing his own inability to loosen up and let it rip in the very close doubles match the Aussies played, and eventually won, against Belarus: I couldn’t release myself. . .
Sound familiar, players?
The McEnroe award for sustained Davis Cup excellence goes to Lleyton Hewitt. I predicted an upset in the Australia vs. Belarus tie, but it never happened. Chris Guccione did a great job in beating Max Mirnyi in the first match, after which Hewitt gave up just five games to Vladimir Voltchkov to put the Aussies up 2-0 at the end of Day 1. They never looked back, and Hewitt never had to lift his racquet in anger again. . .
Question for MFDCKADS (heh-heh-heh): How come Australia, another rapidly crumbling superpower, always seems to patch together a serviceable squad that plays miles above its head, and the U.S. doesn’t?
The LVP (Least Valuable Player) award goes to Belarus’s Max Mirnyi. We like the big, raw-boned guy, but he lost to Aussie journeyman Chris Guccione in the first singles match of the tie and then ensured the Aussie sweep when he and Vladimir Voltchkov went down in the doubles – despite Mirnyi’s gaudy World No. 3 ranking.
The Flat Earth Society honorary membership goes to the ITF, for failing to incorporate Hawkeye line-calling technology into Davis Cup, especially in light of two factors: Davis Cup matches take place on just one court, and the rampant nationalism that always puts line callers under extra pressure in DC matches.
The Glass Half-Empty, Glass Half-Full award goes to France’s Richard Gasquet, who played two heroic, five-set matches for the Tricolor (that’s the half-full part) but lost them both (hello, half-empty).
Gasquet's loss to Marat Safin can be characterized as a valiant effort by an underdog. The collapse against Tursunov was harder to spin in a positive way. Chain smoking waiters in stinky white shirts all over Paris were smacking themselves in the head over that one! So was squad captain Guy Forget.
The Old School award goes to the Aussie double squad of Arthurs and Paul Hanley, who kept alive two Aussie traditions: producing players blessed with the doubles gene, and coming up with journeymen who consistently rise to the Davis Cup call, even if it isn’t always pretty. . .
The Al Davis Just Win, Baby award goes to Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, the player-captain (for the final time)for Big Red lost the first two sets of his tie-opening singles match to Argentina’s Agustin Calleri; he then won five sets running to take both his singles, even though Croatia ultimately lost to the Argies. JiffyLjub is a DC monster: He’s in the elite Fifty Plus club in matches played (singles and doubles) with a record of 35-16; he’s 25-7 indoors.
The Flying Off the Radar award goes to Great Britain, the multi-nation empire that lost to postage-stamp sized Serbia and Montenegro in their Europe/Africa Zone Group 1 encounter.
How bad was it? Andy Murray and Greg Rusedski lost the doubles to Ilija Bozoljac (the official Davis Cup website doesn’t have a picture of him, has no clue about his height or weight, doesn’t even know if he’s lefty or righty, click here if think I'm kidding) and Nenad Zimonjic.
Like I keep saying, you’ve just got to love Davis Cup. Hey - anybody know if Argentina requires a visa?