!Fish by Pete Bodo
I'm presently a little tapped out on Milos Raonic (I added some fresh thoughts on him over at ESPN this morning), who's still lighting up the scoreboard down in Memphis, or as they say in Texas, "Meffis." Raonic is in the semis now, but I have a higher degree of interest in three other ATP pros still alive in the same draw: Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey, two of whom have been named to the Davis Cup squad rookie captain Jim Courier will be taking to Chile at the end of the month. Those names, though, are written in sand.
You may remember that I spoke with Courier during the Australian Open about the pending Davis Cup tie, and wrote a post about it. At the time, Courier insisted that all the candidates still had plenty of time to earn a place on the squad, and acknowledged that having a terrific doubles team like Bob and Mike Bryan, while a great luxury, also restricts a captain's singles options.
For example, because the Bryans did not make that critical playoff-round trip to Colombia, outgoing captain Patrick McEnroe had three potential singles players: Querrey, Fish, and John Isner (with young Ryan Harrison the fourth man on the squad). This mix-and-match team, more the norm than not, was viable. As things turned out in Bogota, Fish seemed to be best prepared to handle the challenges and atmosphere (literally as well as figuratively, given the mile-high elevation at which the matches were played). So McEnroe leaned on him. Could anyone forsee that Fish would become the first U.S. man since Pete Sampras in 1995 to play a part in all three of the rubbers that clinched the tie for his nation?
Had McEnroe taken along the Bryans (he had considered the option of taking one, but those boys are only available as a matched set), there's a chance Fish might have been left off the team. And who knows what might have happened then. Still, I think any captain on earth would not hesitate to take a dedicated doubles team that comes as close to guaranteeing a victory as do the Bryans (they're a stellar 17-2).
I haven't been able to learn or figure out why Fish, who's playing Querrey in Memphis today, was left off the team, at least for now. Perhaps he's recused himself, for reasons having to do with his recent, fatigue-related health problems. Perhaps Courier just wanted to satisfy the ITF's requirements by submitting five names, knowing that even after that list has to be whittled down to four (on Feb. 22nd), he will still be allowed to make up to two substitutions right before the draw for the tie is made. You don't really have to write the name of your squad into stone until March 3, which makes a lot of these preliminary selections confusing.
There are all kinds of reasons why it would be virtually impossible to leave one or both Bryans off this team, starting with their record and remarkable loyalty to the event. No new captain in his right mind would want to rock the boat so early in his tenure—not unless that ship were sinking. So Courier has decided to take the almost sure doubles point.
Then there's Andy Roddick. You can't very well leave him off the team, can you? At No. 8 he's the highest-ranked and by far most accomplished of the American players. And the team that Courier inherited from McEnroe is still Roddick's team—he's the veteran leader, the guy former baseball star Reggie Jackson once characterized (speaking of himself) as "the straw that stirs the drink." Roddick and the Bryans have been the most ardent and gung-ho of Davis Cup warriors during the McEnroe era. Clearly, the idea that the emergence of Querrey and Isner would change all that was premature.
Thankfully for Courier, none of the other contenders have played well enough over the past few months to challenge Roddick's place on the squad. So once again, the critical Davis Cup question is, "Who's going to be No. 2 singles?"
Courier named both Querrey and Isner (who are good buddies, and also a doubles team to reckon with) to the team, which is going to leave him with some explaining to do should Fish beat Querrey in Memphis today—and especially if he goes on to, say, win the tournament. Should Fish outshine his countrymen in Memphis (Roddick is still in the tournament, too), will he suddenly become available or expect to be named to the four-man team? Given what he did in Bogota, he would have every right to demand a place on the team—and I believe he'd get one.
