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Davis Cup: Some with fans, some not

December 2, 2021 by
Novak Djokovic

At the Davis Cup, in Europe, there are a number of players who want to the event and are fully engaged. Lots of fans attended in some arenas, and there are other cities with no heads at all. That can be messy.

Hopefully, in 2022, crowds will return as things get back to normal

No. 1 Novak Djokovic is playing because he really believes that Serbia can grab the cup for the first time. In the singles, for the most part, he can beat just about everyone, but this year, he did lose a few amazing matches, like when he lost to Daniil Medvedev in the U.S. Open final. The Russian is playing also, so maybe they can meet again. It is super close, going backhand to backhand, cross-court, or down the line. On the forehand, Djokovic can mix it up, but Medvedev can slap it very hard. Next time, they meet, and as Medvedev said, he will throw in a few different hits. Perhaps Djokovic will do it, too, coming into the net more often.

Andrey Rublev is also playing for Russia. They have a strong one-two punch as he teams up with Medvedev and they think if they play well, then they can hoist the trophy.

NOTES
England lost to Germany. The Brits thought they could go deeper. One of their players, Cameron Norrie, had a fine year. He certainly wants to move into the top 10 next year. He has improved a lot…
 
A few years ago, we though that Nick Kyrgios will go deep at the Grand Slams. While he has won some terrific matches, he has never gone into the semis in the majors. He gets hurt a lot, so now, the chance of reaching a major final would be surprising. At least one of the other Australian John Millman had a solid year.

The American men lost early at the Davis Cup, which was odd, given that they have three good singles players and a decent doubles team. At least Frances Tiafoe won a tough match, but both Reilly Opelka and John Isner went down, twice, in the singles. Maybe next year they can re-adjust.

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‘Hand of God’ Touches Nadal as He Upsets Roddick

March 30, 2020 by
Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal

We started TennisReporters.net in May 2001, 20 years ago. We have posted well over 1,500 articles.

As coronavirus began to strike the tennis world, Indian Wells cancelled the tournament on March 9. Right after that, the tournaments pulled out quickly, including Miami, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros. Now, the WTA and the ATP have shut down until June 7. Or even further. No one really knows.

However, if you love tennis, you can reminisce with TennisReporters.net. We are resurfacing many of our best stories, written by Matthew Cronin.

SEVILLA, SPAIN – Andy Roddick has never fought harder in a Davis Cup match and has never experienced a team loss like he did in his 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-6 (6) 6-2 defeat to Spanish 18-year-old Rafael Nadal on Friday in the US-Spain Davis Cup final. Roddick pushed, pulled, sweated and strained to dictate the action on the super slow clay in the three-hour, 38-minute contest, but the lightening quick lefty had too much from him from the backcourt. The extremely nationalistic and emotionally involved crowd of 27,200 cheered Roddick’s every fault. He was restrained for a man who usually makes his living debating the finer points of line-calling with chair umpires. He cut loose on the balls instead, but Nadal chopped him down nonetheless.

“Emotionally I’m pretty down,” Roddick said. ” I wanted to get one for the team. I leave everything out there, and I take a lot of pride in that. I just ran into a guy today that was too good. I couldn’t have tried any harder.  I gave it everything I had.  It just wasn’t enough on the day.”

As a result of Roddick’s dramatic loss and Fish’s routine 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Carlos Moya in the opening match, the US will go into Saturday’s doubles in a 0-2 hole. It’s a hole as deep as they’ve ever been in and one they are not likely to climb out of.

For most of the match against Nadal, Roddick went above and beyond his capabilities on the surface. He’s never hit that many half-volley winners in his life. But in the end, the US’ big gun had his power muted on the wet clay by an 18-year-old with a world of spunk and shotmaking abilities. 

Roddick and Nadal contested two of the most athletic and spectacular tiebreaker of the year. Both men dove, reflexed volleys and pulled off hooking passing shots that caressed the lines.  In the first set breaker, Roddick came back from 3-5 down when the youngster got nervous and committed a series of errors. At that moment, it seemed like the 2003 US Open champion might have a shot at winning the contest based on experience alone.

But as one Spanish journalist said as they walked off the court, the hand of god touched Nadal. Gone was his youthful erratic swings and mental letdowns. In the tradition of his uncle, Miguel, who was nicknamed “The Beast” when he raged for the Barcelona soccer team, the now muscular Rafael was a lion. He hammered and hooked his forehand every way possible, and powered his once weaker backhand deep and with authority. He displayed remarkable touch with his sleight of hand drop shot. Roddick kept charging and serving bullets, but Nadal sped around with hungry determination, consistently getting returns in play and waiting for a chance to dip balls at Roddick’s feet and then swipe a passes beyond the reach of taller and equally ferocious American.

“He played well.  It’s very impressive,” Roddick said.  “Every once in a while people come along and they’re big-match players.  He apparently looks like he’s a big-match player. He’s come through. This is the third time this year he’s stepped up in singles [in Davis Cup] and played well.  I think you either have it or you don’t, regardless of age.  Maybe it helps him in a way.”

With the fans sounding like a group of wasps on a mosquito hunt, the match turned in the third set. Nadal had eight chances to break Roddick, but the American team leader came up with tape-snapping serves and ambitious volley winners. Roddick fought off seven of the eight break points with winners, earning himself another nail biting tiebreaker. He was inches from winning the third set and had he done so, may have won the contest. Up 5-4 and with two serving points on his racket, Roddick doubled faulted to 5-5. He quickly responded by scooping up a low volley and forcing Nadal into a forehand error. On set point at 6-5, Nadal went to his drop shot, Roddick charged, and couldn’t lift a forehand passing shot over the net cords. The Spaniard then crushed a swing volley winner and a backhand crosscourt to win the set.

“Obviously that was going to swing the momentum either way – and fast,” Roddick said.  “You were playing those two points for the next two sets. They were pretty crucial.  I just missed that [set point], so that was big.”

The match essentially ended there as Roddick’s confidence level plunged and Nadal soared along with the crowd. Roddick slowed considerably and Nadal became the new darling of Spanish tennis, celebrating like he won the Grand Slam.

There is a glimmer of hope on Saturday, because Nadal might be tired when he and Tommy Robredo go up against the Bryan Brothers, former Roland Garros champions who might be able to pull out a win. But even if that occurs, Sunday looms. To think that the Bryans will emerge victorious and Roddick and Fish can both win their singles matches on Sunday is wishful thinking, but if you’re a US fan, there’s nothing left to ponder. In the 104 years of Davis Cup competition, an 0-2 comeback has happened only once in the World Group, in 1939, when Australia came back to shock the US.  It’s only happened eight times in the World Group period and here’s a shocking fact: the hard court bred boys of the US have never pulled it off on clay.  They did it once in an inter-zonal match in 1934 against Australia on grass. The US is 1-30 when they are 0-2 down. They are underdogs of the scraggly and wounded variety.

With the temperatures dropping into the mid 40s, US captain Patrick McEnroe nearly froze sitting five hours courtside. But he needs to gets his team fired up as quickly as possible because the last thing the US wanted coming here was to travel across the Atlantic, spend all week get used to sliding on dirt and have their buts kicked in a shutout.

“We know our backs are against the wall,” McEnroe said. “But we’re going to come out and we’re going to fight for every point. We’re going to come out and hopefully play a great doubles match.  And Sunday will be a new day. There’s no big mystery of what we need to do. We came here knowing the difficulty and knowing the challenge.  We’re still going to relish the opportunity.  We’ve still got an opportunity to make history.”

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Nadal and Spain win the Davis Cup

November 24, 2019 by
Rafael Nadal


It is the end of the year, for the men, after almost 11 months. They are done, finally, at the end of November, and the No. 1, Rafa Nadal, has had a tremendous year. 

On Sunday, in Madrid, Spain won the title at the Davis Cup, beating Canada 2-0. 

Nadal won everything, in singles, and believe it or not, in the doubles, too. Through the year, the lefty Spaniard rarely plays doubles because he wants to make sure that if he does, he could get hurt and he would not play at all. But the 33-year-old is very careful now, with the exception of playing clay constantly, but when he is conscious of how his body is reacting, then he can just rip the ball and be aggressive.

On Sunday, in the final, he edged the young man, Denis Shapovalov, 6-3, 7-6. The Canadian Shapovalov had a fine event, in the singles and doubles, too. But, in this match, Nadal was a little more intense and he was on fire. Over the past two years, the now 20-year-old Shapovalov has gotten better, and next year, he may crack into the top 10, but currently, he get frustrated, and he knock it too long. Shapovalov looks pretty darn good, but to win the match, he had to overcome the fans who were screaming for Nadal. To stun Nadal at his home, well, Shapovalov would have to play 100 percent. That is very difficult, and while the Canadian was trying as hard as he could, he must realize that the 19-Grand Slam champion Nadal is better than he is. 

Shapovalov did upset Nadal in Montreal two years ago, but that was then, and this was now.

In the first match, the veteran Roberto Bautista Agut beat a super young player, Felix Auger-Aliassime, 7-6 6-3. Nadal was raring to go, and he did. Nadal was lethal with his big forehand, and he mixed his serve into the middle into the chest, and he touched the corners. He could swing it away, because Spain already was up a match.

Nadal won all eight matches, including five singles, and three doubles. He did not drop a set. He is the clear No. 1, winning Roland Garros, the US Open and now the Davis Cup, among others. 

Since 2000, Spain has won the Davis Cup six times. It wasn’t just about Nadal.

Next January, Nadal will be thinking about winning the Australian Open. If he does that, he will tie with Roger Federer at 20 Slams. Of course, he can wait until Roland Garros, which he has won 12 times in June on clay, but perhaps Nadal wants to celebrate on the hard courts in Melbourne. He never brags, but for everyone, they have to here the voices when you are sleeping. You cannot take it away. Or perhaps, the dreams will hide you, but for Nadal, when you are awake, then you will think about it and believe he can still beat everyone. Just like he did at Madrid.

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Game changer: Davis Cup reforms could produce big shake-up

September 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment


While the Davis Cup semifinals were underway last week, a bigger contest for control of the sport’s team events was unfolding behind the scenes. The ITF’s recent vote to transform the competition into a one-week, 18-nation event in a single location, coupled with the ATP’s decision to re-start its own, similar World Team Cup, has opened up a battleground that could have far-reaching repercussions across the tour.

Having two national team competitions — and having them just six weeks apart — seems “insane,” as even ATP CEO Chris Kermode put it, and it is puzzling that things even got to this point in the first place. But when soccer player Gerard Pique made his initial approach to the ITF about a World Cup-style tennis competition, its change-adverse leader at the time, Francesco Ricci Bitti, would not hear of such radical reform. Rebuffed, Pique went to the ATP and found it receptive at first, rummaging up its shelved Dusseldorf-based event as a potential vehicle. Then that also broke down, prompting Pique to return to the ITF, which was now led by the change-oriented David Haggerty and eager to bring him on.

The ATP, though, still pursued its idea, finding a Chinese investment group and getting the backing of Tennis Australia, which saw the World Team Cup as an appealing lead-up to the Australian Open. The ITF announced an agreement to reform the Davis Cup with Pique’s investment group, Kosmos, worth around $125 million annually.

Talks were attempted by the ITF and ATP to avoid an obvious clash, but did not go anywhere. That became apparent when the ATP declared plans for its World Team Cup just before Wimbledon, followed by the ITF approving its reforms in a highly contentious vote at the organization’s Annual General Meeting.

Now the potential for conflict seems far higher than the potential for co-operation, and is also drawing in the game’s other major constituencies. Here’s a look at the lines of contention.

ITF vs. ATP
Finding ground for the two sides to work together is difficult. A combined ITF and ATP team competition is geographically unlikely. Tennis Australia’s involvement means the World Team Cup is committed to being in Australia, while the ITF has pledged its first two finals to Europe, likely Madrid or Lille.

There could be some movement on the dates, but juggling the packed tennis schedule is far from simple. There are currently four Davis Cup weeks in the season, so on the surface it seems like the new competition would lighten the load. But perhaps not.

While new Davis Cup has been slotted into the final week in November, the timing is not very palatable to the players, who do not want it to interrupt their off-season break. That might be why Pique told Le Figaro he wants to organize with the ATP to move the competition to September.

There is already a Davis Cup round in September, but not in a good spot — it is played the week following the US Open. But if it were moved to the following week, as the ITF likely wants, it would conflict not just with ATP events but also with the Roger Federer-created Laver Cup, which technically an exhibition, but an event with deep pockets attracting most top ten players.

“We have our dates. We’re not moving,” Federer’s agent, Tony Godsick, told as an aside at the US Open.

On top of that, there’s talk of a ten-day Davis Cup, which would require two weeks in the schedule. The ITF could give the ATP one of its other three weeks in return for a two-week spot, but it has allocated a week to a compromise round of home-and-away ties, and Haggerty has told The New York Times that the ITF has plans for two new events in its other weeks. That could lead to ITF events taking up four or five weeks during the regular season, to which the ATP would object loudly.

If the two sides cannot reach an agreement, the tour could start scheduling ATP events at the same time as Davis Cup and the other planned ITF events. And it might not stop there — if the ATP gives more favorable scheduling and ATP points to the World Team Cup while refusing to do the same for Davis Cup, the ITF could file an antitrust lawsuit, throwing the game into protracted conflict. Conversely, the ATP could also accuse the ITF of imposing its own requirements on players. If either side goes to the courts, it is likely to be hugely expensive and damaging for both organizations.

Even if that does not happen, it seems obvious that just having two national-team events side-by-side will produce confusion and impede each other. The Davis Cup has more history, while the World Team Cup is more convenient, but it is yet to be seen which will be more successful in winning players and popularity in these new forms.

Both plan to offer around $20 million in player prize money, but the ITF’s agreement with Pique and his group is by far the more lucrative — so lucrative, there are questions about whether the group can break even and whether it will keep ploughing in funds if it does not.

Haggerty, speaking in an interview at the US Open, explained the ITF had done a “due diligence” process with a top accounting firm, in addition to assigning four board members to look at the offer and provide an assessment to the federations.

”It’s essentially a licensing agreement where we work together on the operations of the Davis Cup finals. So they have broadcast and sponsorship rights, they give us guarantees, but again, it’s a collaborative effort,” he said.

Haggerty also said funding has been provided along with bank guarantees, but a letter from Tennis Europe before the vote suggested that some federations were told the total amount of the guarantees was around $82 million.

Several of the large tennis nations were split on the reforms, both internally and externally. While top player participation has declined, the Davis Cup still has a tight hold in large corners of the sport. Among those in favor of reform was the United States, along with the French Tennis Federation (FFT) president — despite opposition from French players. Tennis Australia, which has an interest in the World Team Cup, was against it, as was Germany. The UK’s LTA also announced that it would be voting no, against the expressed preference of Wimbledon, but there are still some questions about whether it actually did as said.

Still, Haggerty is insistent the federations “are aligning together” following the vote, with nations like Germany, Serbia and Poland pledging to now back the reforms. But there are lingering concerns about improprieties around the securing of votes — there are allegations or admissions of various offers around more than 43 votes — sufficient to swing the balance required — and it is rumoured some nations have even spoken of an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

ATP vs. ATP
This is not just about the ITF and the ATP — there are also issues within the ATP itself. Billionaire Larry Ellison, who owns Indian Wells, recently became an investor in Kosmos, which came with a commitment to eventually hold a Davis Cup finals at Indian Wells.

The tournament had apparently been interested in holding the World Team Cup before the ATP went with Tennis Australia.

The ATP in turn has contacted Indian Wells, informing them that holding the Davis Cup finals could be a violation of its contract with the ATP. But, considering Ellison’s involvement in tying up the America’s Cup yachting competition in such disputes, that might not be a good move.

The ATP has been getting more involved in running events, and now has the NextGen Finals and the World Team Cup along with the season-capping ATP Tour Finals. That could increase tension with other tournaments in its role of running the men’s tour.

As it is, ATP players and tournaments are at odds about prize money increases, especially at the Masters level.

The player representatives on the ATP board, notably Justin Gimbelstob, are demanding a 19 percent annual increase for the Masters 1000s, according to L’Equipe, having already received double digit increases in recent years. While some events, like Indian Wells, want to provide even more, most are digging in their heels. The ATP board, which consists of three tournament and three player representatives along with the CEO, is almost at a standstill on this issue.

It appears Novak Djokovic is leading the charge for more pay from the Player Council, like by publicly calling for the ATP Tour Finals to look at moving to other locations. There are cities, especially in Asia, willing to offer extravagant sums to hold events — something the WTA Tour has taken advantage of, while the ATP has held back from going largely with the highest bidder.

While competing at the Dubai tournament in 2015, Djokovic peculiarly suggested the tournament should become a Masters event, even though the event itself does not want to do so and the tour has no plans to increase the amount of Masters events.

A few weeks ago, he said that he would like the Grand Slams to be the best of three sets rather than five, and argued that the sport needs more innovation. This contradicts the sport’s experience that the old-fashioned events have been the most successful.

“But comparing to other sports in this modern times, tennis, I think, hasn’t fulfilled its potential,” said Djokovic at Cincinnati. “Tradition and history and integrity of the sport is something that is very important, but that has held us back.”

ATP vs. WTA
Rank-and-file agitation has had other effects. The ATP board recently refused Gstaad’s request to become a combined event, and previously looked at splitting Washington, D.C. Further back, the combined event at New Haven has had the ATP tournament go to Winston-Salem, though it is not known whether any preference was expressed by the ATP.

Some — though not all — male players, stung by criticism for their questioning of equal prize money and tired of scrutiny around court assignments and scheduling given to male and female players, have become increasingly opposed to having dual gender events.

But, combined events have generally been the most successful in tennis, with tournaments held together getting more spectators than men’s or women’s events on their own. Indeed, two ATP events — Atlanta and Newport, whose facilities would not allow the adding of a WTA event — have begun holding a women’s exhibition during the tournament and brought in big crowds.

“I don’t know if it’s the next best thing, but it’s the next best thing we could think of, is to have an exhibition and give the fans some diversity of experience while they’re with us,” said Todd Martin, tournament director of Newport, in an interview during the US Open. “I think our sport has demonstrated it’s greatest when it’s aligned. Tournament vs. tournament, or gender vs. gender, or tour vs. tour, or entity vs. entity, is counterproductive to the betterment of our sport.”

Nevertheless, it isn’t going away. The largest sticking point is equal prize money at the bigger combined events. There has been frustration among some ATP players that their prize money rise has been limited by having to share half of any increase with the women — particularly, they argue, since they collectively earn more for the tournaments and because WTA players have not joined them in the calls for more prize money.

The ATP looked a couple of years ago at establishing a special Masters category with higher prize money for some events like Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Shanghai — these are also, apart from Dubai, the equal prize money events — but nothing has come of it yet. In the meantime, Beijing is looking to convert its ATP 500 event to a Masters, to run alongside its WTA Premier event.

The WTA — now with its big TV contract, a lucrative new location for the WTA Finals, and potentially also a new title sponsor, according to Sports Business Journal — should now be more capable of holding its position on equal pay for the top combined events. But these contrasting sentiments are having effects on the scheduling and organization of tournaments.

ATP vs. Grand Slams
The Grand Slams are unlikely to consider moving away from equal prize money, and do not seem to be inclined to offer more big prize money increases either. The Australian Open might be more amenable than the others, but their general stance is that they have done plenty, as prize money at the Slams has doubled in recent years, reaching $53 million at the US Open.

Yet, Grand Slams have also seen their earnings rise sharply, and players want another round of increases, complaining that they still get too small a portion. They have also pointed to problems with communication, saying they were not properly consulted about the introduction of the shot clock.

Although members of the ATP board, player council and representatives have been organizing the conversation with the Slams, the Slams have become increasingly reluctant to have the ATP involved. That could produce more talk of a player union, which Djokovic brought up at the player meeting at the Australian Open. But whether the players can even agree among themselves on any form of collective action is another issue altogether.

The Slams, on the other hand, appear willing to assert themselves if there is any confrontation.

The changes to the team events add another layer of friction. The chairman of the All England Club, Philip Brook, backed the Davis Cup reforms simply as a counter to the ATP’s — and Tennis Australia’s — plans, according to The Telegraph.

Grand Slams vs. each other
It is also a reflection of the fissures between the Slams themselves. Under Craig Tiley’s leadership, Tennis Australia has become involved in both the World Team Cup and Laver Cup, along with being a voting member of the ITF and vocal opponent of the Davis Cup changes. The other Slams are wary of its ambitions, and of it potentially breaking ranks on prize money.

Tennis Australia, on the other hand, has seemed unwary of the conflicts that it has got into, and could find itself in some awkward positions as its partners tussle with each other.

The USTA is also a partner of Laver Cup and a proponent of the Davis Cup reforms; it could be similarly conflicted in any scheduling argument between the competitions. That is on top of USTA Chief Executive, Professional Tennis Stacey Allaster’s questionable campaign for rule changes like on-court coaching and the shot clock, some of which have exasperated the others.

The Davis Cup reforms have exacerbated the crisis at the FFT, where unpopular president Bernard Giudicelli voted for the changes despite strident opposition from French players and those involved in the game. Giudicelli also benefited from an ITF rule adjustment that allowed him to stay on the board despite what in France is considered a criminal conviction, a move which has also been highly questioned. The federation’s influence and effectiveness will be hampered while all this persists.

As far as the game’s team competitions are concerned, the intrigue is as high off the court as on it.

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The Davis Cup preview: USA, Italy, France, Spain, Germany & more

April 6, 2018 by Leave a Comment

John Isner must be thrilled, winning Miami, his best two consecutive weeks ever. But now, it is time for Davis Cup. In Nashville, against Belgium, the Americans are a huge favorite, with teammates Jack Sock, Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson and Ryan Harrison. They are playing indoors, which will probably be pretty fast on the hard court. If they play decently, the USA will win, hands down.

Any of the five guys can win it in the singles, given that Belgium are pretty slim. The very good David Goffin isn’t playing because he is still hurt. The two singles player, Ruben Bemelmans and Joris De Loore, will play, and they will have a small chance to win. Bemelmans is very decent, but he is not that great.

American captain Jim Courier has chosen Isner and Querrey for singles. On Friday, Isner will face De Loore, and Querrey versus. Bemelmans. On Saturday, it will be Sock and Harrison in doubles against a pair of unknown Belgium players.

Courier is darn smart, so if the players listen to what he says, they will move on, quickly.

In Spain, Rafa Nadal will be playing in Valencia against the Germans. On Wednesday, the No. 1 Nadal hadn’t decided whether he would play on Friday, but he decided to. He will face off against Philipp Kohlschreiber. He appears to be very excited, which is great, but over the past three months, he has been hurt, significantly. Hopefully, he won’t pull out again. As the fans say, ‘Pray.’

Before that, it looked like Pablo Carreno Busta was going to play, but he became injured. (Everyone gets injured, right?) He pulled out, so David Ferrer has brought him in, and will play the flashy No. 4, Alexander Zverev. The one-time Roland Garros finalist Ferrer loves to grind, and while Zverev likes to chase the balls and whack-em, he cannot get lose his cool, just like he did when he lost in the Indian Wells final against Isner. He must focus. Zverev and Kohlschreiber need to be on fire and enthusiastic. It should be a great contest.

Here is another terrific tie: home team Italy versus France on clay, in Genoa. Fabio Fognini is certainly playing in singles, and the captain Corrado Barazzutti chose Andreas Seppi. It will be a very tight match, either way. The French captain Yannick Noah choose the No. 11 Lucas Pouille and Jeremy Chardy, who played pretty well in the past month. Teu have to chop it around and mix it up anywhere you want to. A toss up overall?  You bet.

Croatia is a serious favorite against Kazakhstan, with Marin Cilic and Borna Coric leading the pack. Coric is playing much better than he did last year.

MORE NOTES
Charleston, South Carolina is a terrific area, near the great water. On court at the Volvo Car Open on green hardcourts, they slide a lot, and on occasion, they fall down. But they get back up, wipe up your towels, and run. Some of the top players don’t come much anymore, but still, there are some very good players, like the US Open finalist Madison Keys, who has struggled this season, but she is trying. She beat Lara Arruabarrena and then on Thursday, she beat the some-times good Camila Giorgi. Not bad. She needs to win a lot this week, because very soon, here comes the European clay. There, she has to hustle a lot…
Brit Jo Konta is really struggling and she lost against Fanny Stollar 6-3 6-4. She is 7-6 this season and now she is ranked No. 22. She has to get back on track…
The ‘other’ Kristyna Pliskova shocked the No. 10 Petra Kvitova 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. The next day, she upset Elena Vesnina. On fire, huh?

Kvitova can look great, or she can fold. She needs to rest for a while. At least a few weeks. … One more good win: American Bernarda Pera upset Sara Errani. Another American is on the rise.

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Davis Cup: The heroes, the young guys and the veterans

April 12, 2017 by Leave a Comment

The top 5 from the Davis Cup quarterfinals

Nick Kyrgios
The 20-year-old led Australia in beating the US, knocking out the vets John Isner and Sam Querrey. He is much more comfortable in the Davis Cup than on the ATP World Tour, being aggressive and smart. The Aussies could actually win it all this year, but they need to bring back Bernard Tomic to help them. If he is actually playing, that is.  

David Goffin
The Belgium plays Davis Cup all the time, year after year. They beat Italy 3-1 Given that Goffin has improved a lot recently, maybe they can upset Australia at home and actually reach the final. Perhaps, if he can kiss the lines in September, that is.

Viktor Troicki
Yes, Novak Djokovic won his match, but Troicki was confident in singles and doubles. They whipped Spain. If the No. 2 Djokovic decides not to play right after the US Open ends, then Serbia has no chance to win the Cup again. They do not have enough great players to prevail without him.

All the French
The top 3 men couldn’t play because of injury, so France brought in a bunch of fine competitors. France has so much depth. Four players cracked England: Lucas Pouille, Jeremy Chardy, Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut.

Lleyton Hewitt
The new captain was pretty brilliant, upsetting the Americans by helping Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson. They were super solid, just like Lleyton was when he played, year-in and year-out.

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US glides into Davis Cup second round

February 5, 2017 by Leave a Comment

No, thanks, Mike & Bob. We’re good.

US Davis Cup captain Jim Courier must have been pretty confident to send out Olympic bronze medalists Jack Sock https://www.viagrasansordonnancefr.com/ou-acheter-du-viagra/ and Steve Johnson to earn the third and deciding point as Team USA faced off against Switzerland. The Americans had to snake their way through a determined Swiss duo of  Adrien Bossel/Henri Laaksonen 7-6(3) 6-3 7-6(5).

The doubles rubber victory sealed the first-round for the US. They will travel to Australian for a second-round matchup.

Playing in  the shadow of Bob and Mike Bryan didn’t seem to affect the American team and a packed, partisan crowd in Birmingham, Ala. Earlier this year the twins, who own just about every men’s doubles record any team could ever want, announced their retirement from Davis Cup competition. The Bryans won and played in more US Davis Cup matches than any other team. Since 2003, the brothers have been such a mainstay that the team U.S. had only sent out four different combinations for the doubles rubber in 34 ties. Compare that to most countries who often send out a hodgepodge of non-stars to represent them.

Like the Swiss, who are here without two of the world’s best: Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.

Courier choose to go with the Sock/Johnson combo instead of playing Sam Querrey, who was relegated to the fourth spot on the team as Sock and John Isner where picked as singles players. It’s fair to predict that Querrey will be pegged to play one of the two dead rubbers on Sunday. These matches will be the best of three sets.

In doubles, the Americans pulled out the first set by overcoming a mini-break early in the tiebreak. Throughout that set the Swiss couldn’t smack a backhand winner while Sock/Johnson totaled eight.

The second set was another story as the Americans took a strong lead, winning 13 of 14 points in the early games. The Swiss rebounded with one break but still couldn’t counter the Americans, who converted two of five break points.

The third set provided some real drama, igniting a crowd who inserted chants and songs into pauses in the action. Both teams capitalized on a break each to set up a tiebreak.

Sock and Johnson hits a number of stunning points, with low-angled volleys and crushing overheads. The Swiss had a chance to blast away an overhead late in the tiebreak. But the overhead didn’t have much pace and Americans were able to track it down and smash a down-the-middle groundstroke winner. The point of the match.

Other ties

Australia, led by legend and captain Lleyton Hewitt, surprising took down the Czech Republic in straight matches. The Czechs played without top player Tomas Berdych.

While playing on the road in Tokyo, France took all three matches to advance. Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon made the trip while Kei Nishikori did not play.

Led by Novak Djokovic, Serbia dispatched Russia in three. Italy, Croatia and Belgium stand 2-1 after two days.

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A big man who just got a bit bigger: Andy Murray and Great Britain win the Davis Cup over Belgium

November 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Olympic gold medalist Murray begins his 2013 Aussie campaign.

 

DAVIS CUP, Nov. 29 – The 2015 tennis season is over, and it may have ended on the shot of the year. Andy Murray has steered Great Britain to its first Davis Cup title since 1936, the last of the golden years British tennis enjoyed before Fred Perry retired. Murray beat David Goffin of Belgium 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 to win the Davis Cup for the 10th time and set his own record for the most live rubbers won in a year.

If great drama is made by confounding expectations, this would not count as great drama. The British were expected to win 3-1, and they duly did. But if drama can also be finding the most breathtaking shot at the most crucial moment, then Andy Murray’s lob on match point was one of the shots of the year.

It was the Scot’s second match point. On the first he had dumped a backhand return into the net off a nervy second serve. On the second he got into a long rally, which Goffin appeared to be controlling. On the 17th shot, Goffin drove a forehand into Murray’s forehand corner. Murray did well to get it back. Goffin stepped in for the kill, driving his forehand to the Murray backhand. But Murray read it, stepped across and played the most exquisite lob on the 20th stroke to seal the trophy for the British. A short worthy of the moment!

Anyone not in the stadium or watching on television would note the result as exactly what most people expected. But Goffin played well. His performance was vastly better than his paltry display three weeks ago when Murray beat him 6-1, 6-0 at the Paris Masters, and while he lacked the presence to seriously threaten Murray, he offered a constant reminder that he was good enough to seize the initiative if Murray’s level dropped.

But then Murray has been outstanding all year. Because of the ITF’s custom of counting dead rubbers as part of Davis Cup records, Murray’s 11 wins this year leaves him still behind John McEnroe and level with Michael Stich and Ivan Ljubicic. But three of McEnroe’s 12 wins in 1982 were dead rubbers, and one of Stich’s in 1993 was; Ljubicic’s 11 wins in 2005 were all live, but he lost his final match to Dominik Hrbaty on the final day of the final. By contrast, Murray has won 11 out of 11, all live, and only didn’t play against the Bryan twins in March’s first round because James Ward had beaten John Isner on the Friday so Murray was rested for the doubles. He can therefore count as the most successful Davis Cup player in a single year since the World Group began in 1981, and following this triumph Ljubicic tweeted that Murray’s achievement in 2015 is greater than his from 2005.

If that feels like a trick with statistics, there’s no doubting Murray’s colossal status as a team player. Although he is the best tennis player the British have ever produced (with the possible exception of Perry, but the level of competition was so much less intense in the 1930s), he is not the only top-level British player since the second world war. Before tennis went open there were Mike Sangster and Mike Davies. Just after it went open, there was a generation of Mark Cox and Roger Taylor, who were closely followed by John and David Lloyd. The Lloyd brothers joined with Cox and Buster Mottram to reach the final in 1978, but that’s as close as the British have come since Perry. Even the twin-flag-carriers Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski, both of whom reached fourth in the rankings, never got beyond the first round of the world group.

Much as this triumph is a single-handed one for Murray, the energy he brought to the team even five years ago has been very important. The appointment of Leon Smith as captain in 2010 was significant, in that Smith had coached Murray from age 11 to 15, so there was a trusting relationship there. Smith’s first tie in charge was to avoid relegation to the bottom tier of the Davis Cup, and Murray made it clear he would not always be available to play so he expected Britain’s other players to carry some of the load.

Only in September 2013 did Murray commit fully to playing every tie. By then the British were the playoff round for the world group, having rallied from 0-2 down to beat Russia in April 2013, with James Ward and Dan Evans winning clutch rubbers on the final day. So when Murray talks about this Davis Cup triumph being a team effort, he is not being polite or parading false modesty – he is genuinely aware of the contribution made by the players ranked lower than him.

It was a point he regularly emphasised in Great Britain’s 2015 run. Having won Olympic gold, the US Open and Wimbledon, the Davis Cup was his next target, and he recognised very early that this was a team pursuit, however dependent the British were on him. And not just the other players, but also the backroom staff of coaches, physios, etc.

The word ‘team’ is more important than ‘patriotic’ in Murray’s context. He represents two countries – Scotland and Great Britain – and is a very proud Scot. Although he didn’t have a vote in last year’s referendum on Scottish independence (because he lives in England), he let it be known late in the campaign that he had been inspired by the independence campaign and would have voted to secede from the United Kingdom if he’d been so enfranchised.

Yet here he was crying his eyes out in emotional triumph for the entity he’d have voted to break away from. In that respect it was more like a golfer winning for the European Ryder Cup team than for a player winning for his nation, more a triumph for the team backed by a geographical entity than for any sense of patriotism. When asked after his win over Goffin who the passion was for, he talked much more about his team-mates than about his country.

“Always when I’ve played Davis Cup, since I was 17, I’ve been unbelievably passionate,” he said. “I loved it when I played the doubles against Israel [his debut]. That hasn’t changed, but also I know all this team extremely well, and because we’ve been together for such a long time there’s a stronger bond between us than there has been in the past, and I think all the players get on with each other, respect each other, and a lot of us are close friends, so it means a lot to do it with them.”

Murray’s biggest problem remains that his on-court persona endears him to so few people. Even his country folk sometimes find it hard to warm to him, yet he is held in the highest esteem by those who know him off-court. The Belgian captain Johan van Herck said after this final, “I’m very pleased for Andy. He deserves this both as a sportsman and as a human being. I’ve known him since he was a junior, and while he sometimes pushes things to the limit when he’s on court, he is always a very decent man off the court, always interested in people. He’s a big man.”

And as the last member of the ‘big four’ to win the Davis Cup, he’s a bit bigger now.

 

 

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Murray brothers take doubles, up 2-1 over Belgium

November 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Andy Murray

Andy Murray has the second of three wins he’s looking for in Ghent. Mal Taam/MALT Photo

FROM THE DAVIS CUP FINAL IN GHENT, BELGIUM – By all economic logic, doubles as a spectator sport ought to be dead by now. The gulf between public interest in singles and doubles seems to grow each year, and the ATP has only saved the doubles circuit by a change in the scoring system that effectively limits the length of matches.

And yet the corpse continues to breathe, especially in Davis Cup where the doubles can still be pivotal, despite making up just 20 percent of a weekend’s action. The doubles in this final was a case in point, not just pivotal, but a very watchable match. Great Britain’s Andy and Jamie Murray’s 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Belgium’s Steve Darcis and David Goffin is unlikely to be memorable as a great contest, but it was a fascinating tactical encounter which had some great points, and the result makes it hard to see anything other than the British claiming a tenth Davis Cup title on Sunday.

And yet there was something unsatisfying about it. The weakest link among the four was, by some way, Jamie Murray. He looked almost out of his depth at times, and his kid brother had to bail him out on numerous occasions. Darcis and Goffin, playing together for just the fifth time (including two Challengers), targeted the left-handed Murray, and allowed him no confidence on his returns, many of which he lobbed more in hope than expectation.

Eventually Jamie woke up, most noticeably after dropping serve early in the third set, and by the end his volleys were sharp. But his serve was always shaky, and Andy was the only member of the quartet not to be broken.

And yet, if one looks at the doubles rankings, Jamie is seventh, while Andy is at 180, Goffin at 378, and Darcis 596. And the reason Andy, Goffin and Darcis played when higher-ranked doubles players were available is that they are better players – they just don’t play enough doubles to have better rankings. In effect, when it comes to Davis Cup, singles rankings generally are a better guide to doubles prowess than doubles rankings.

That is not to knock doubles on the tour. The doubles competition at the recent ATP World Tour finals produced some great matches and human interest stories, capped by a 34-year-old from the Caribbean, Jean-Julien Rojer, reaching the top of his profession having grown up with self-taught strokes in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, with very little help until the Grand Slam Development Fund picked him up at 13. Tour doubles has clearly found its niche, serving a useful purpose as a sub-tour to the singles stars.

But Davis Cup regularly shows that a top-100 singles player generally trumps a doubles specialist. Goffin and Darcis were Belgium’s best option, and with Darcis holding the pair together with some delightful touches at the net, Belgium could easily have won until Darcis faded badly in the fourth set. But a tactical adjustment initiated by Andy proved the Belgians’ undoing.

The Murrays took the first set, but the match seemed to turn when Jamie was broken in the third game of the second. With the Belgians targeting Jamie, Andy had to take a lot of risks to cover for his brother. When Jamie was broken at the start of the third set, the Belgians looked the likelier winners, but at that point Andy started staying back while Jamie was returning, thereby giving his brother a bigger target to aim for and making it harder for the Belgian at the net to hit volley winners.

Combined with the Belgians’ failure to come in after their serves, the effect proved dramatic. It allowed Jamie to push his returns and charge in to the net. As his reflex volleys found their range alongside Andy’s cultured volleys, the visitors wrested the initiative from the hosts, and turned the match back in their favour. There was a flurry of breaks: Jamie, Darcis, Goffin, Jamie again and Darcis again, but thanks to Andy’s service holds the British took the third set.

With Darcis broken in the third game of the fourth, and tiring badly, Jamie’s confidence grew, and he was a more convincing player at the end as the Murrays ran out winners in two hours, 49 minutes. Andy paid tribute to his brother at the end, saying, “I trust Jamie on a doubles court so much, and even if he started slow, I knew he would get it going. He loves playing in big matches. He tends to perform very well on big occasions, and this year in all of the ties, he’s performed extremely well. I trust him when he’s next to me on the court, not just because he’s my brother but because he’s an exceptionally good tennis player.”

Sunday’s singles key is Murray vs. Goffin

Nice words, and no doubt heartfelt to a brother and teammate. Nonetheless, the match strengthens the impression that the British team is Andy Murray plus a couple of helpers, and Murray is likely to seal victory for Great Britain – and make it 11 wins out of 11 for him in Davis Cup this year – when he takes on David Goffin in Sunday’s first reverse singles.

That match is not a foregone conclusion. Goffin can afford to be more relaxed than he was against Kyle Edmund in Friday’s singles, and while he has never taken a set off Murray in two previous meetings, they have yet to play on clay, which is Goffin’s best surface. But Belgium’s problems appear to go beyond the unlikelihood of Goffin beating Murray. Darcis admitted to tiring in the fourth set of the doubles, and while he said he’d be available for a fifth rubber if necessary, he looks out of the running having used up his reserves in the doubles.

Inadvertently, this doubles may have acted as an advertisement for next year’s Olympic doubles tournament. The allure of Olympic medals means the best singles players are often willing to turn out for doubles in the Olympics, indeed it has been known for players to default from the singles if they feel they have a better chance of a medal in doubles. The theory that the Olympics have the best doubles tournament in today’s tennis – because so many top singles players turn out – appears to have been boosted by Saturday’s action at this Davis Cup final.

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Great Britain and Belgium all square 1-1 in Davis Cup Final

November 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment

David+Goffin+UlWHVXF6iNwl

 

NOVEMBER 27, DAVIS CUP FINAL – In Day One from Ghent, Belgium, the home country and Great Britain are knotted at 1-1.

After an hour and 11 minutes of this final, one of the tennis stories of the year was two-thirds written. Kyle Edmund, a 20-year-old born in Johannesburg but who has lived most of his life in England, was threatening to make one of the most impressive Davis Cup debuts ever, and to kill off this final within two hours of it starting. He led David Goffin 6-3, 6-1, having had a set point to win his first set in Davis Cup as a bagel.

At that point, the British captain Leon Smith could feel not only vindicated in giving his youngster the second singles slot after Andy Murray, but confident about the rest of the weekend. If his No 2 player could so utterly dominate the world No 16, then even if he went on to lose the match he would still be highly fancied to win a fifth rubber against either the world No 84 (Steve Darcis) or No 108 (Ruben Bemelmans). Yet, by the time Edmund did lose the match, Smith would have been decidedly less rosy about the rest of the weekend.

Edmund was outstanding for two sets. In a 12-minute first game, he looked a little nervous, perhaps because he’d been kept waiting a long time in an otherwise highly impressive opening ceremony. But once he’d saved two break points, he was out of the blocks, and Goffin did well to stave off a 6-0 set. Goffin was clearly feeling the weight of expectation, and in the second set his serve disintegrated as he double-faulted three service games away.

But the match began to turn after he stopped Edmund’s impressive streak at seven games. Edmund played a poor third game of the third set, and Goffin was in. The Belgian wasn’t playing particularly well, but Edmund’s drop in level allowed Goffin to find his way to some form. Soon Edmund was looking physically weak. He admitted after the match that he was struggling with tiredness and cramping in the fourth and fifth sets, and he crumbled, losing the last 12 games as Goffin won 3-6, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-0. Yet it wasn’t a long match – two hours 47 minutes in total – so the Brit was basically saying he began to wilt after two hours.

More importantly, when asked on three occasions whether he would be mentally and physically ready to play the fifth rubber on Sunday if needed, he said he’d be physically fit but didn’t talk about the mental side. While there was nothing he said that could be held against him, he didn’t sound like a man who believed he could win. And his physical condition must be a worry – this is the player who beat Stéphane Robert in five sets in the first round of the French Open in May, but then couldn’t take to the court to play Nick Kyrgios two days later because his body had rebelled. He may simply not be ready for two best-of-five matches in three days.

Murray’s reliability

Goffin’s win threw the spotlight back on Andy Murray. It was always expected that Murray had to win three matches for the British to lift their first Davis Cup since 1936, so his best scenario was a straight sets win. He got one – he beat Ruben Bemelmans 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 – but it took half an hour longer than it needed to after Murray was docked a point for a second audible obscenity at 2-2 in the third set.

Both captains were warned before this final that the umpires would be very strict about audible obscenities, and Murray is a serial offender. It’s a wonder that television picture directors persist in showing close-ups of Murray’s face after he misses a shot, as the camera regularly catches him mouthing words that wouldn’t be heard in polite society, for which few lip-reading skills are required. So it was no surprise that Murray was warned early in the third set.

What was a surprise was that he did it again just two games later, and right under the nose of the umpire. He claimed afterwards not to have heard the first warning because of the crowd noise, and joked that he found it hard to believe the umpire had heard the words he had used for the same reason. But with his record, it was a pretty feeble excuse, and he had effectively put himself in a straitjacket for the rest of the match. So when he was broken to trail 2-4, he couldn’t let out the angst with his usual flurry of unpublishable terms. He was clearly very wound up.

Murray eventually recaptured control of the match. He let out an animalistic “yeah!” when he saved at set point at 4-5, then broke for 6-5 on three magnificent forehands, and served out a victory that always looked likely. But the whole thing took two hours 24 minutes, the third set taking almost half of it, and the extra half-hour could come back to bite him in Sunday’s singles against Goffin if Saturday’s doubles goes long.

There seems little doubt that the Murray brothers, Jamie and Andy, will play for the British on Saturday, but the Belgians had a lot to discuss over their Friday dinner. The nominated pair of Steve Darcis and Kimmer Coppejans is merely that: a nomination. Darcis seems likely to play, but probably partnering Goffin or Bemelmans. Belgian’s captain Johan van Herck said he didn’t know what his pairing would be but accepted that Goffin with either Darcis or Bemelmans was “a possibility.”

Murray denied that the doubles would be as crucial as in some Davis Cup encounters, but he is probably talking up his team’s chances in a fifth rubber more than he actually believes in them. If it went to a fifth, the Belgians would be favourites, which is why Murray will know he really has to win on Saturday and Sunday to take the fifth rubber out of it.

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