| davis cup: april 2005
By Matthew Cronin
CARSON — It matters little how well Ivan
Ljubicic played in Rotterdam, Doha or Dubai, or whether he almost
beat Roger Federer twice. The quietly creative Croat never pulled
off a feat like he did at the Home Depot Center, transforming
himself into an Edgar Allen Poe nightmare and shattering the new
U.S. Dream Team’s hopes of winning the Davis Cup title.
Down went the legendary Andre Agassi on Friday in straight sets.
Down went the previously undefeated Bob and Mike Bryan to Ljubicic
and Mario Ancic on Saturday. Then down went America’s biggest
and most feared gun, Andy Roddick 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(11), 6-7(7), 6-2
to clinch the shocking 3-1 upset for the Croats. “In Davis
Cup everything is possible,” said Croatian captain Nikki
Pilic. “It doesn’t matter if you are seeded or not.
With inspiration and team play, you can reach 150 percent of your
potential.”
U.S tennis Dream Teams — like the 1992 squad of Agassi,
John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier — have been few
and far between, and when they have appeared, they’ve put
up resounding victories. Not so with ‘05 Dream Teamers,
who were the first to lose an opening-round home tie in the 105
years of U.S. Davis Cup history.
All that pre-tie talk about the Americans traveling to Russia
in September and Argentina in December to chop down the other
big boys became forgotten idle chatter. All the U.S. team was
left with was a lot of hurt and what ifs.
“There’s no worse feeling than losing a match in Davis
Cup in our sport, especially when your teammates or counting on
you,” Roddick said. “I wouldn’t have put money
on [Ljubicic winning all three matches),” Roddick said.
“But I knew coming in we probably had one of the toughest
first-round draws. We definitely did not take these guys lightly
and knew that we had our work cut out for us.”
McEnroe liked his team’s fight, but was mollified about
being unable to take this squad further. “It hurts a lot,”
McEnroe said. “After getting in the final last year, starting
off at home with our best team, it’s disappointing. I certainly
didn’t expect it. But in saying that, you’ve got to
tip your hat to them, especially to Ljubicic.”
Ljubicic was better than good, he was flat out great
when it counted, fighting off numerous set and break points all
weekend long, coming up with big serves, backhand passing shots
and unreachable forehands when he needed it. The tall, quiet,
yet totally lethal Croat has won six straight matches against
the U.S., including when he won all three of his matches in ‘03
when Croatia defeated the Americans in Zagreb. But ‘05 was
a much more impressive feat.
“It’s a huge difference,” he said. “With
all respect, [I beat] James Blake and Mardy Fish in ‘03.
That’s nothing compared with Agassi, Roddick and the Bryans
in L.A. It’s incredible.”
It was far from incredible for the Americans, who began the tie
in dour fashion when a tentative and confused Agassi in fell 6-3,
7-6(0), 6-3 to Ljubicic. When a player is 30-5 entering a Davis
Cup-tie, there are few occasions when he’s looked bad. Agassi
was in a sorry way and the result was simply stunning, not in
that he lost, but how he lost. The hype surrounding his return
to the team had been tremendous, leading many to believe that
his Third Coming (he left the team twice before) heralded a new
age in U.S. dominance. What’s forgotten is that he’s
34, has been troubled by injuries much of the year and hasn’t
had a great season even when he’s playing well. Moreover,
even though he’s an eight-time Slam champ and former No.
1, everyone in the sport is still prone to putting too much pressure
on himself. Agassi, who knew the world was watching his return
match, put too much pressure on himself and played tight all day.
He admitted as much.
“I don’t mind pressure,” Agassi said. “But
it’s more about my own perspective...Any time you care about
something greatly, you put more pressure on yourself. You would
think that when you get older you are more equipped to deal with
that. But I’m putting up a good argument for the opposite.”
But once again, Roddick responded and took out Mario Ancic 4-6,
6-2, 6-1, 6-4. Most of the team was confident that the Bryans
would take care of business against a team they beat twice last
fall, but Bob had cautioned that this would be their toughest
bout ever. How right he was as the twins fell 3-6, 7-6(8), 6-4,
6-4 to the Olympic bronze medallists to give Croatia a 2-1 lead.
“It hurts,” said Mike Bryan. “It doesn’t
feel good to let your team down.”
But still, Roddick had never lost on U.S. soil before
and had a healthy 5-1 record over Ljubicic. The feeling was that
he’d be the stopper again, the guy who would push the tie
until the fifth and final match giving Agassi a shot at redemption.
Throughout the near four-hour match, Roddick had multiple chances,
but was simply beaten by the better player on the day. He had
one significant chance to win the third set tiebreaker at 6-5,
when instead of gunning a first serve, he went for a kicker, which
Ljubicic got back in play. Roddick had his money shot, his forehand,
set up, but he dumped it into the net. On Roddick’s other
two set points, Ljubicic nailed a forehand volley and passing
shot. At 11-12, Roddick erred on an inside-out forehand and the
Croat grabbed the set.
Give credit as always to Roddick for fighting his tail off and
for winning the fourth set breaker on his fifth set point, even
though it took a Ljubicic double fault to end the set. But the
young American lost his focus to open the fifth, let go of eight
straight points and the match. He was never really in the set
because he couldn’t lengthen the points enough against the
sore-kneed Ljubicic, who came up with a big serve and searing
groundies every time he needed to.
In the wake of a crushing loss, the U.S. couldn’t really
look ahead with much of a positive attitude. McEnroe still doesn’t
have a No. 2 singles player he can count on and really, if you
look at Roddick’s play over the last two ties and last four
months in general, he doesn’t have a Federer or Hewitt type
No. 1 on the team either.
It’s doubtful that Agassi will return when the U.S. plays
a World Group Qualifying match against a yet to be determined
opponent in September. Whether he’s even playing in ‘06
is very much up in the air.
“We have to wait a pretty long time to go at it again, which
is disappointing,” said Roddick. “We felt like we
had a pretty good opportunity, and we were so excited. [That it
might be Agassi’s last Cup appearance] is definitely sad.”
McEnroe doesn’t know what Agassi’s future holds. “We
were excited to have him back,” he noted. He was excited
to be back. It’s disappointing the way it turned out. But
we got beat by one guy who got incredibly hot and had a tremendous
weekend.
There’s a lot to be disappointed about, but there’s
nothing to be ashamed of. Our guys fought hard.”
© 2005
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