It was a great weekend for heroes, if not for Andy Murray, whose Great Britain Davis Cup squad went down in stinky flames to Poland in - get this - Group I zonal competition. And at home, no less.
That's right, Murray and company weren't even fighting for the privilege of remaining in the World Group, as were so many marquee names this weekend; they're wallowing down in the zonal pits and it's fair to ask, can you get there (WG) from here? Or, at what point is Murray entitled to throw up his hands and walk away from the Davis Cup mess, much like Roger Federer did some years ago, grumbling: Get me someone, anyone who can play this stupid game!
!90099615 While the importance of Davis Cup remains an issue among some fans and the media persists in ignoring this all-around terrific competition, the nations of the world continue to field increasingly formidable squads and produce sometimes insanely competitive and/or dramatic ties. How about Nicolas Lapentti, at the mind-blowing age of 33, leading Ecuador into the elite World Group fold by playing two best-of-five singles and a doubles over three consecutive days, on clay, to lead his squad past Brazil - in Brazil?
Meet Nico Lapentti, Davis Cup MVP of this week. We're not taking questions.
Lapentti won his Day One singles i handily but, playing alongside his brother Giovanni, he had to grind out fives sets to help secure the doubles. Thus, in the scripted meeting of No. 1s, Lapentti played the fourth, potentially clinching rubber against Brazilian no. 1 Marcos Daniel. Long story short: Lapentti won it, 8-6 in the fifth
And this is what Lapentti said in the wake of his great effort: “It is one of the most special moments of my life. I really couldn’t believe when the match finished, because it was so up and down. I was very tired after the first two sets but this is the beauty of Davis Cup, the energy of a team and the energy of a country."
Come on, sports editors and broadcasters of the USA, give it up for Davis Cup. How about a little love? And yes, I'll keep saying it until I'm blue in the face, even though I'm already blue in the face. Davis Cup is, along with the four Grand Slam events, an absolutely critical crown jewel of the game. And there's nothing wrong with the format; Davis Cup has had a player-commitment problem, not a format problem.
But as an increasing number of players from formerly off-the-radar nations contend at majors (Djokovic is a great example; Federer would have been one, too, if only he weren't playing tennis for different stakes than everyone else) and earn big reputations by winning them, the status of Davis Cup will continue to grow. One net-gain for tennis in this period of relative weakness in the US is that the indifference of the media here is not an embarrassment for Davis Cup, nor does anyone else in the world give a hoot about our general attitude toward the competition. The decline of talent in the US has boosted Davis Cup worldwide.
!90982197 And consider this: Roger Federer played the key role in keeping Switzerland in the World Group. Chile, France, Serbia, India, Sweden and Ecuador - a mix of tennis powers and game outsiders - will join the Swiss. We had some very big names in the breech with the embarrassment of relegation to the Davis Cup minors (in some nations, that's considered a scandal) at stake.The key players who stepped up for their nations included Lapentti, Nicolas Massu (Chile), Somdev Devvarman (India), Robin Soderling (Sweden), and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France). Serbia didn't even feel obliged to play Novak Djokovic - which just shows how far that small nation has advanced in the tennis food chain. It's still a laundry list of familiar names, if you know that Lapentti was once in the top 10, Massu an Olympic Games singles gold medalist, and Devvarman a two-time NCAA champion. You probably know about that Federer guy, too.
And you've got the love the plain-jane but information richDavis Cup website of the ITF. It's not nearly as slick and "now" as the ATP or WTA sites, but it's incomparably easier to navigate and just feels like a real, no-nonsense, tennis nut's site.
Of course, it was a lost weekend for Andy Murray; Great Britain now drops back another league, to Group II.But hey - they're probably still dancing in the streets in Cracow.
PS - Treat this as the Your Call post for today.