Glass half-full, glass half-empty: Andy Roddick beats Mario Ancic to register his 15th Davis Cup singles win (tying him on the U.S. all-time list with Pete Sampras, Stan Smith, and Tut Bartzen), but 48 hours later he loses a match that marks the first first-round loss for the U.S. squad on home soil since the competition began in 1900.
Insight in Hindsight: Pat McEnroe, on the massacre in Carson:
Sensitive, new-age guys need not apply: Ivan Ljubicic on whether or not he would take a long break after getting to four early season finals and playingâand winningâDavis Cup matches against the U.S. on three successive days:
Sensitive, new-age guys go ballistic: What is it about the Spanishâwho were the defending Davis Cup champsâthat makes them so frequently and predictably seem like a bunch of prima donnas (remember the Wimbledon seeding controversies?)? Why are these guys always whining about being insufficiently ârespectedâ? Why are they always making hollow threats?
The latest installment: last weekâs tie against the Slovaks, who worked the home advantage to the hilt by installing an uncommon, rubberized, indoor hard court. According to Bob Larsonâs Daily Tennis, the Spanish went nuts as soon as they set foot on the court, bitterly complaining that it was unauthorized (the ITF has to sign off on any surface used in Cup play), that they were being sandbagged, that they were going to invent surfaces, too . . . blah, blah, blah.
For the record, this is what Slovak captain Miloslav Mecir (know as âthe Big Catâ in his playing days) had to say: âThe ITF rules allow the host team to choose the surface. The one we chose is internationally approved. We played on a similar kind of court in the United States and there was never a single problem or complaint.â
The Spanish worked themselves into such a snit that they stank out Bratislavaâs spanking-new National Tennis Center, with Feliciano Lopez going down in the first match in straight sets to Karol Beck. It got progressively worse from there, as the Slovaks ran off four matches before Spain posted its feeble, single point.
The upshot: Spain lost the Cup after holding it for all of three months.
Wonder if they can wipe their fingerprints off it so that the teams who really come to play, overcoming what obstacles they meet (look under L for Ljubicic), can get on with it. Note: Watch out for the Slovaks as the Cup progresses.
The best-of-five debate in perspective: Every once in a while, somebody raises a big issue about tennis needing to abandon the best-of-five format at the events where itâs still used. The Davis Cup at Carson demonstrated exactly why tennis should do no such thing.