Like many of you, I flicked on the TV to watch the all-important doubles rubber in the U.S. vs. Romania clash at La Jolla, Ca., on Saturday. I figured it was a good chance to catch up and see how the Bryan brothers, Mike and Bob, are playing. After all, these guys have been in five Grand Slam finals in a row—which is pretty amazing, in this day and age. (Unfortunately, they were on track to complete what they themselves described as a “reverse Grand Slam” by losing all four major finals last year, until the U.S. Open win broke the hex.)
It was a bummer to see Romanian doubles player Victor Hanescu pull up hurt; it effectively ended the tie in its tracks. But I was glad to have caught the typically brief, dignified opening ceremony that the host team stages before the doubles is played on Saturday.
I thought Pat McEnroe made moving and classy—if unadorned—welcome remarks. Snicker or smirk if you wish, but in a low-key, pleasant way, he made me proud to be an American with his straightforward—indeed, almost gruff—comments on how it was great to be vocally supportive of your/our squad, but important to show respect to the Romanian guests as well.
Granted, I haven’t watched many DC ceremonies lately, but the fact that Pat spoke, and the content of his remarks, were novel and welcome. As I wrote before the tie, I love Davis Cup and reject all this baloney about what a huge burden it is for the players. It's no more a "burden" than the schedule. If you want to play a schedule that doesn't kill you, and Davis Cup as well, you can. Just get your face out of the money trough.
Notice that the only players whining, protesting, or indulging in the “maybe I’ll play, maybe I won’t” game are the gazillionaires like Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer, and Andre Agassi. They can’t find room on the schedule for Davis Cup because it conflicts with . . . what, some bogus, meaningless and utterly forgettable tournament that happens to offer two or three hundred K in appearance money to top stars?
Please.
You don’t hear broke journeymen from Slovakia or Belarus or Finland whining about the “economic burden” or “scheduling hardship” of Davis Cup. So let us praise the John McEnroes and Andy Roddicks and Ivan Ljubicics who are there, always there, when Davis Cup calls. For there isn’t a better competition in all of sports; I’ll write another post on that subject for the next DC round in April.
Meanwhile, if you want a good recap of all the action, the ITF’s own website does an excellent job (click here) and to get a good idea of where the endless debate about changing the Davis Cup format stands, old-hand Jerry Magee of the San Diego Union-Tribune has an interesting update here.
Daydreaming this morning on the subway, I came up with two Davis Cup awards that I’m going to pass out to the deserving at the end of each Davis Cup week. They’re the Preemies and the Poopies, handed out, respectively, for premium-grade or strikingly dog poop-ish performances. So here we go, with our first Poochie's Choice awards:
Preemy: James Blake. He came through big-time after the Andy Roddick shocker on Day 1, and I don’t mind noting that it was exactly what I predicted in my Friday post "The Things We Do For Love." Meanwhile, Matt Cronin has gone on the record with some intriguing thoughts on the way James has been playing—and gaining on Roddick in the battle for bragging rights to U.S. men’s tennis.
Incidentally, if you saw the Roddick's Day 1 press conference, you heard Matt ask Andy about the extent to which his upset stomach was caused by Davis Cup nerves (as opposed to, say, bad fish), and—if you could take the extensive monologue featuring the V-word without blowing your own cookies—Roddick’s funny reply (not sure if this is the exact quote, I’m having trouble getting the transcript): If I threw up during every match where I felt nervous, there’d be a lot of messy tennis courts out there.
In the story I link above, as well as the presser, Matt seemed to have trouble taking Andy’s explanation for his illness at face value—it’s another of those cases where a journalist has a theory and doesn’t want to let it go, no matter what the subject says. It’s one of the most difficult things about this job—at least for those who want to be both accurate and responsible, as well as critical and perceptive.
Preemy: Chris Guccione. Aussie, Aussie. Aussie. . . Oi, Oi, Oi! This Australian journeyman stepped up, big time, to wax a Davis Cup and Grand Slam event veteran in the decisive, fifth rubber of the green-and-gold’s upset of a Roger Federer-less Switzerland. Great all around effort by a nation that really has the Davis Cup gene.
*Poopy: The German team. It pains me to say this because the captain, Patrick Kuhnen, is a friend of mine, but the inability of these guys to set aside their egos, petty personal rivalries, and “just mail it in” attitude toward Davis Cup is shocking. On paper, these guys are legitimate contenders to win the Cup; instead, they suck so bad that you can feel your own lungs collapsing if you’re in the same room with them during Davis Cup. And this is the same nation that Boris Becker battled for so valiantly, just a generation earlier!
*Preemy: Jose Acasuso, one of the least known among the Argentinean band of top players (he’s got a sweet, smooth game that’s always worth watching), blitzed former Australian Open champ, Sweden’s Thomas Johannson, to win the second singles on Day 1. In effect, he put paid to the tie, surrendering just five games in tie that utterly demoralized the Davis Cup-loving Swedes.
*Preemy: The McEnroes. Patrick, for the reasons I mentioned above. But John also deserves a Preemie for his continuing Davis Cup loyalty. I mean, does this guy really need to take on a weekend gig on the under-the-radar Tennis Channel and Outdoor Life Network (and I’m a big fan of OLN, as a hunter and fisherman)? It was a thing he did for love.
My colleague, Pennsyltucky’s own Steve Tignor (his musing are at The Wrap, at the mother ship’s website) tells me that McEnroe said that Federer ought to be taken to task for not playing Davis Cup. I second the motion.
*Poopy: David Ferrer of Spain got just 10 games off Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus in the second singles of Day 1 (after Belarus’ Max Miry upset Tommy Robredo to kick things off). That was the end of Spain, although it has to be said that the whole team stunk.
Preemy: Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic, for their tie-clinching, 8-6 in the fifth* win over the Austrian doubles squad.
*Preemy: Stanislas Wawrinka won his two singles and helped keep Switzerland competitive in the doubles in the doomed effort vs. Australia.
*Poopy: Jonas Bjorkman got one game off Acasuso in the fifth match (a dead rubber) of Sweden’s tie at Argentina. Jonas is truly a wonderful guy. He’s a great Davis Cup and Grand Slam veteran. The match was meaningless. Still, you’ve just got to do a little better than that for the fans, especially in a best-of-three de facto exo on forgiving clay.
*Preemy: Mercurial youngster Richard Gasquet toughed out a 6-3 in the fifth win over Tommy Haas to take the second singles on Day 1, in effect providing France with an insurmountable lead.
Well, that’s it for Davis Cup for at least a few weeks. I’m curious to see where the U.S. is going to host Chile in the next round. I have a funny feeling it isn’t going to be on the red clay courts of the River Oaks Country Club in Houston.
How about indoors, in New Haven (Blake country), on a hockey rink?