Ouch!

!104243582 by Pete Bodo

Serbia took it on the chin in doubles in the semifinals of the Davis Cup yesterday, meaning that Novak Djokovic will be playing for his squad's competitive life when he meets Czech No. 1 Tomas Berdych in the first of the reverse singles today. You know the old saying about hindsight being 20-20, but you still can't help but wonder, how wise was it to put Novak Djokovic in as a doubles player?

For one thing, it appeared that playing in yoke with the world No. 2 player, a lionized runner-up in the U.S. Open final less than a week ago, really spooked Nenad Zimonjic. Forget Zimonjic's world ranking of No. 3 in doubles; it's an entirely different game, and even the best of doubles players tend to be highly deferential toward the top singles players. It's as if they know, down deep, that doubles is what you do when you can't cut it in singles. That they're playing softball, while the top singles players are hardball guys. That many of them are making a living mainly because the top singles players in recent years have eschewed doubles.

It doesn't matter that the truth is almost certainly more complicated than that. Doubles is a great game in its own right. Just ask John McEnroe, whose deep and abiding love of doubles remains one of the great testaments to his simple love and understanding of the game. But doubles will forever be tainted by the existence, and pre-eminence, of singles. The best you an do is deal with it and move on, laughing all the way to the bank, and the International Tennis Hall of Fame, in the manner of the Bryan brothers.

So a dedicated doubles player like Zimonjic is apt to have certain psychic vulnerabilities, and nothing preys upon those quite like Davis Cup. And once again, we saw that no matter what you say about the home-crowd advantage, the home team in any Davis Cup tie is the one most likely to feel most or all of the pressure. You're supposed to win at home. The spectre of letting down your home fans is more terrifying than winning for them is uplifting. Like many great players will tell you, they hate losing more than they love winning. It's an oft-told tale.

So pity poor Zimonjic, expected by virtue of his impeccable credentials to pull his share of the load alongside Djokovic. That has to create an additional strain. It appears to have been too much for Zimonjic. At a time when he might have played above his head just to make a point about doubles guys, he found himself in over his head. It's not like Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek are a gimme, for anyone. It's more like Zimonjic found himself out of his league—something he would have been unlikely to experience if only he had more prior exposure to such a situation—or if he were in a comfort zone, playing with another player who's a more regular fixture in matches when the doubles alley is fair territory.

Worse yet, the Czechs often went after Djokovic, probably thinking that making his life difficult yesterday would pay benefits today when he goes up against Berdych. It was a sound if cruel strategy, and it paid off—at one point, Djokovic was so frustrated that he incurred a warning and fine for smashing a racket. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind when it comes to triumphant homecomings. And with Boris Tadjic, the President of his nation, looking on, no less.

Ouch.

How could a tie that looked so promising after Janko Tipsarevic upset Tomas Berdych to keep the Serbian hopes alive going into the doubles go downhill so quickly? The only answer I can come up with is, Hey, it's Davis Cup. . . strange things happen. Now Djokovic is more apt to feel the after-effects of his U.S. Open performance in today's match. He isn't playing to win it, he's playing to keep alive hopes that the Serbs can somehow pull it out. If Serbia is going to win, the hero will have to be Tipsarevic.

Or that's how it would seem. But only two ranking places separate Tipsarevic and his opponent in a potentially decisive fifth rubber, Stepanek. So as fine as an achievment as it would be for Tipsarevic to win, the heavy lilfting will have to be done by Djokovic. His match with Berdych is a must-win, and even if the Czech No. 1 is playing badly, the events of the last few weeks, especially yesterday, suggest that a dispirited Djokovic has to dig very deep to keep Serbian hopes alive.

In another critical doubles match, the gamble taken by U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe paid off, and keeps alive his desire to win the last tie at which he's the US captain—and keeps the U.S. in the World Group for next year. He left the reliable Bryan brothers at home, in order to give him more options in singles. When Mardy Fish and John Isner paired up to win the doubles rubber over Robert Farah and Carlos Salamanca at Colombia, they provided a cushion but also invited a question that can't be answered as I post this: Who will play singles for the U.S., Fish (who's already played two matches), Querrey (who had a lot of trouble in losing his singles match on Friday), or Isner, who's fresh and coming off a good performance in the doubles?

My gut feeling is that Fish will play. He's the veteran on the squad, he's won a singles and a doubles, and he's fit. PMac is a loyal guy, and sentiment will tug at his heart strings. Fish spent a lot of time sitting on the U.S. bench the past few years, without uttering a word of complaint. He's now in a rare position to do what few players from any nation have: collect three Ws in a Davis Cup tie. But I can see McEnroe sending Isner out to sub for Querrey, especially after seeing this quote from the Colombian doubles player, Farah: "I was surprised at how by how hard John Isner served. I mean, there were some balls that I just didn't even see."

And you know what that old baseball player once said: You can't hit what you can't see.

PS—'Grats to France, which swept Argentina, 3-0, by winning the doubles yesterday.