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The Scoop: TUESDAY, APRIL 8
Roger and out: Federer continues amazing Davis Cup play
Can the Swiss take the Aussies? Can the Argentines upset Spain?
By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
If Switzerland's Roger Federer can find out what type of hot Geneva chocolate is being poured into the Davis Cup bowl, he should immediately bottle it and save it for the Grand Slams.
In his brief career, the 21-year-old Swiss been a one-man Davis Cup wrecking crew and last weekend, stunned mighty France 3-2 nearly all by his lonesome. First, Federer took out Nicolas Escude in four sets. Then, he teamed with semi-retired captain Marc Rosset to defeat Escude/Fabrice Santoro, France, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4). After France's Sebastien Grosjean was forced to pull out with an injury, Federer flew past Santoro 6-1, 6-0, 6-2.
"Roger has improved a lot since the French defeated us in the quarterfinal two years ago," Rosset said. "We shall have to store him in ice until the semifinals."
Given that he went 4-0 in singles and 1-1 in doubles in 2002, Federer's triple is all together stunning. Last year, the all-court player took out an "A" list of competitors including Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin, Hicham Arazi and Younes El Aynaoui without losing a set. In Toulouse against France, he was equally as impressive, chopping down a squad that won the title two years ago and reached the final last year. "Roger went bang, bang, bang for three matches," French captain Guy Forget said. "He served harder, jumped higher. … When we compare his performance to ours, we can see the difference."
It was rough go for the Forget, who was without the injured Arnaud Clement as a backup singles player and was forced to play the 33-year-old Santoro in singles, who's conditioning is suspect. "I only had my courage," said Santoro. "My only chance to win was to see him fall and break his leg."
AUSSIES CRUSH SWEDES
Switzerland will have a tougher test in September's semis, when they face a now rock solid Australian squad Down Under. The Aussies somewhat surprisingly blew out the Swedes 5-0 in Malmo. Sweden.
The Aussies jumped on Sweden and never looked back, getting a huge 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. win from Mark Philippoussis over Jonas Bjorkman, watching Lleyton Hewitt play near perfect yellowball in the last three games of his 6-4, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 over Thomas Enqvist, and then seeing their impressive doubles combo of Wayne Arthurs/Todd Woodbridge trounce Bjorkman/Enqvist, Sweden, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
"Our guys have been outstanding," Tennis Australia President Geoff Pollard told DavisCup.com. "It's some of the best tennis they have ever played. You wouldn't see guys play better doubles. Philippoussis showed shades of Nice ( the '99 Davis Cup final) and Hewitt, well he is No. 1 in the world. It was a fantastic result. Any win away from home is great but to beat a team as good as Sweden is extra special."
Australia now has to be considered the favorite to win it all, given that should it beat Switzerland, it would face Spain or Argentina in Melbourne. Switzerland will not only need Federer to play lights out again, but will need Michel Kratochvil to get healthy.
"It's a massive opportunity to go two home matches in a row, semis and finals, to have both those at home would be pretty big for us," Wayne Arthurs told Davis Cup.com. "Roger has proved over the last few years that he's a bloody good Davis Cup player. He's held that team together. If they don't have him, they don't have anybody. He's shown he's up there in the top five, top three even, of Davis Cup players of his time."
DEPLETED RUSSIANS FALL
The injury bug took a chunk our of Russia's leg, which is one of the reasons why they went down 5-0 to Argentina. No Safin, an unhealthy Mikhail Youzhny, an out of shape Yevgeny Kafelnikov, an inexperienced Nikolay Davydenko and a very deep and talented Argentine squad spelled doom for the men of Moscow. David Nalbandian and Gaston Gaudio scored easy wins in singles (did Gaudio really trounce former Roland Garros champ Kafelnikov, Russia, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 on clay?) and the dubs duo of Nalbandian/ Lucas Arnold took out Kafelnikov/Youzhny 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
"The players' injuries were the only explanation," Barazby Sabanchiyev, general secretary of the Russian Tennis Federation, told Reuters. "It's only the second time we lost with such a score, but there is no global significance. If Safin hadn't had this injury, there might have been chances. He could have won two of his games and then, with Kafelnikov, he could have put up a fight in the doubles."
Argentina will face the clay court battle of its life when it has to face Spain away, which crushed Croatia 5-0. How do like these potential matchups: Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moya or Albert Costa in singles versus Nalbandian, Gaudio or Guillermo Canas? It's looks to be one of the greatest red dirt Davis Cup contests of all time.
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