Heroes and Lower Case goats

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by Pete Bodo

Now that the semifinal round of the Davis Cup and World Group playoffs are history, let's take a look back at the heroes and goats (note: it's lower case, and not an acronym!) on this quiet Monday.

First off: the team that best embodied the spirit of Davis Cup this week was Israel (and that's an Israeli solider, above, waving the flag of Peru. How Davis Cup is that?). Although the rankings and records of the singles competitors for Israel and Peru were not wildly out of whack, let's remember that Peru is a whopping 512,000 square miles in size, and Israel is, well, slightly larger than the U.S. state of New Jersey - around 8,000 square miles. Population-wise, Peru boasts over 28.5 million, while Israel has just over 7 million. This underscores what we might call the Serbia* Factor*: in tennis, size doesn't matter - things like relative wealth and tennis-friendly cultural elements do. Having said that, if you like your tennis history you need to be familiar with the name ofAlex Olmedo.

Anyway, Israel lost the first rubber of the tie this weekend, but then caught fire, losing just three sets in the next four matches; props to the Israeli doubles team of Andy Ram and Harel Levy, who lost just four games on Saturday.

Now, let's move on to our other heroes:

Juan Martin del Potro was in the nausea-inducing position of having to save the WG semifinal for Argentina after the blue-and-white squandered a 2-0 lead over mighty Russia. But Del Potro crushed Igor Andreev (losing just seven games) in the decisive rubber. I have some more thoughts on Del Potro ready for posting at ESPN. For now, I'll just say it looks like Argentina now has a fearsome, legitimate weapon for Davis Cup duty on any surface in the years to come.

Alexander Peya came through in the critical fifth rubber of a tie on grass at Wimbledon, beating Alex Bogdanovic to lead Austria to a surprise win over Great Britain. Peya is ranked two spots below Bogdanovic, although both of them live in the netherword of the Second Hundred. You may forget this moment, but Alex Playah-hatah-Peya will not - guaranteed.

Jurgen Melzer of Austria qualifies as a Davis Cup warrior for his role in the events mentioned above as well. He won his first singles and helped secure the doubles, setting up Peya's moment of glory.

Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov were facing a humiliating sweep at the hands of Argentina, but the Russian team saved the doubles, 8-6 in the fifth, against David Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas. That enabled Nikolay Davydenko to cowboy up and keep Russia's hopes alive until del Potro extinguished them.

David Ferrer was the big question mark on Spain's side in the semis vs. the USA, and while it's easy to dismiss Andy Roddick's clay-court prowess, the home squad was under a lot of pressure and Roddick is a great Davis Cup competitor. Heck, Sam Querrey pushed Rafael Nadal in the first rubber (Nadal won in four), and that tells you something right there. Ferrer kept the host nation from having to win ugly (remember, the USA won the doubles) with his 8-6 five-set win over Roddick on Day One.

Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione of Australia beat Athens Olympic Games gold medalists Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzalez to give the Aussies a glimmer of hope against a solid Chile squad. It was a 7-5 in the fifth epic, played on red clay in Chile - and we all know how the Aussies love their fast and hard surfaces. The average doubles ranking of Ball and Guccione is 179, Massu and Gonzalez is 115, but bear in mind that Gonzalez is as good in doubles as he wants to be, but focuses on singles.

Rafael Nadal is money in the bank; he gets a hero mention even though everybody expects him to win every match he ever plays on clay. It just ain't as easy as it look, folks, so let's acknowledge it.
Along similar lines, let's also include the USA's Mike Bryan, who demonstrated that he can win doubles matches with someone other than his twin  Bob Bryan at his side; playing with Mardy Fish, Bryan improved his stellar DC record in doubles and helped the USA leave the bullring in Spain with its collective head held high.

Stanislaus Wawrinka has been shaky in some big-match situations, and playing on the same Swiss team as Roger Federer puts you under a certain amount of pressure to win. Wawrinka hung tough to carve out a five-set win over Steve Darcis of Belgium to set the tone, then joined fellow doubles gold medalist Federer to lead the sweep of the Belgians. In the interest of equal time (its become a PC vs Mac thing with Federer and Nadal, doesn't it?), let's give Federer his due. He didn't post the magical three wins this time out, stepping aside to let Stephane Bohl play the dead rubber. But he made his point.

Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa were up against it, facing hardcourt-loving, big-serving, Ivo Karlovic and Lovro Zovko of Croatia, in Zadar, but the Brazilians, down 0-2, pulled out the dubs in tight five-setter.

Dudi Sela of Israel played Luis Horna of Peru in the pivotal fourth match of the tie. Horna's been in the year-end top 100 three years running, Sela just one. But playing before a home crowd in a pick 'em match, Sela overcame the loss of the first set tiebreaker and dropped just seven games in the final set to clinch the tie. That's what you call gettin' er done!

Hyung-Taik Lee tried to do it all once again for Korea, and almost accomplished it against the Netherlands. Lee won both his singles, dropping but one set along the way. He also played doubles with Woong-Sun Jun, whose doubles ranking languishes south of the 300 mark. Lee just wasn't enough of a one-man band this time, as the Dutch won the fifth and decisive rubber.

Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands is ranked 252 in singles, and he was crushed by Lee in the opening tie vs. Korea. But in a position to do or die, he won the fifth rubber with a loss of just six games. Alexander Peya knows just how the guy feels - danged good!

Victor Hanescu lost a mere 10 games in two singles matches to lead Romania over India.

Janko Tipsarevic was looking at the ultimate nightmare: Novak Djokovic had gotten Serbia off on the right foot with an easy first-rubber win against the Slovak Republic. But world no. 43 Tipsarevic made a hash of it and fell behind two-sets to none against Lukas Lacko, ranked no. 240. The Serbs had plenty of firepower to avert disaster, even if Tipsarevic would have lost, but he gutted out a 7-5 fourth set-tiebreaker and an 8-6 fifth set to put the Serbs up, 2-0. His reward was a dispensation to bag out of the fifth rubber (Serbia swept), giving the Serbs a walkover.

Now for our goats (lower-case, and no acronym):

Alberto Mancini, the captain of Argentina. What was Mancini thinking, asking David Nalbandian to play both singles and doubles against a tough - and very physical - Russian squad? Nalbandian had to bounce back to play singles after the marathon doubles match cited above, and he flat-out ran out of gas (despite that big tank!), losing the fourth-set to Davydenko by a bagel (6-0). It's fun ragging on bon vivant Nalbandian,  but he bears no blame in this one.

Igor Andreev of Russia seemed like he never really got into the semfinal against Argentina. Sure the Argentines are tough at home, but Andreev is a claydog, yet he didn't get a set off either of his opponents. In the critical fifth-rubber, with Russia poised to pull off one of the great come-from-behind upsets in recent memory, Andreev simply folded up against del Potro.

Jamie Murray and Ross Hutchins of Great Britain ought to be reminded that all doubles is supposed to be close, but that's wasn't the message in their 4-3-1 loss to the Austrians. For all I know, Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer may be the second coming of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, but I somehow doubt it. Maybe this was karmic payback for the way Jamie trashed brother Andy for not playing Davis Cup last year; in any event, the UKrazies were the victims of the upset of the week. Let's hear it for Austria!

I woke up this morning missing Davis Cup - and you?