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A curious thing has occurred in American sports. Over the past dozen years or so, our nation’s dominance in sports has not so suddenly waned. Our baseball and basketball teams have faltered in international championships. Golf’s Ryder Cup remains firmly on European soil. Our once-lauded track stars like Marion Jones are scandalized. A nation that claimed Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Evander Holyfield as heavyweight champs has no super-sized boxers of note.
Only Lance Armstrong’s singular excellence in the Tour de France stands out for the U.S., and doping scandals have sullied even those achievements.
And, of course, tennis has very much been in step with this development. On the one hand, you can easily argue over the past two decades, America has had the best pool of talent around — think Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang, Martin, Roddick, Blake and the Bryan Bros. But, inexplicably the U.S., which owns the most Davis Cup titles with 31, is in its longest drought ever — 12 years. Sure, the sport is much more international that it once was, but since Sampras & Co. won the nation’s last Davis Cup title in ‘95, stunning Russia in Moscow on red clay, the U.S. has seen a wide variety of setbacks. Losses on Rotterdam piers, shockers with a new-fangled Dream Team in L.A. and, of course, all-too-predictable losses on European clay courts.
Since captain Tom Gullikson coaxed two spectacular clay court wins out of the great Sampras away, the U.S. has lost in the finals twice (in Sweden in ‘97 and in Spain in ‘04) and has taken a series of hand-wringing defeats in other rounds. We have lost in soccer arenas and ice skating rinks, in Spanish resort cities and in the middle of Moscow. We have lost with ragtag groups, and with our best players, Roddick, Agassi and the Bryan Bros. to Croatia in L.A. in ‘05.
But now captain Patrick McEnroe finally has a mature squad — Roddick, Blake and the Bryans Bros. — that will enter the final against defending champ Russia in Portland, Ore., Nov. 30-Dec. 2 as the favorites.
The year 1992 seems like a long time ago, but that was the last time America won a final at home, when its then-Dream Team of Sampras, Agassi, Courier and John McEnroe stomped the Swiss in Texas.
Roddick — who was growing up in Texas at the time and has strong memories of the tie — is salivating at the opportunity to bring the Cup home, despite another season in which he was again forced to watch Federer and Nadal dominate the tour.
“It’s something we as a team have been dreaming of for a while, having a home final,” he said. “We’re really excited. As a kid, I had four dreams that I thought were just completely out of reach. One was to win the U.S. Open [which he did in ‘03], one was to be No. 1 [which he was briefly in ‘03], one was to win Wimbledon [he’s twice reached the final], and one was to win Davis Cup. It’s big dream for a kid, and I don’t think I ever thought I’d be in the vicinity of that.”
Pat McEnroe has never won a title either - not as a player or as a coach. He’s done a good job of solidifying his lineup over the past few years, and in ‘07, his squad earned their first away victory on clay in a World Group match when they took down a depleted Czech squad. They were also able to bury the curse of Gotenburg, when Roddick and the Bryan Bros. scored wins over savvy Sweden in the semis.
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| Can James Blake and Co. live up to their potential and finally win
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Roddick may be well behind top-ranked Federer, Nadal and No. 3 Novak Djokovic on the tour, but he’s been a dependable and fiery Davis Cup leader, seemingly clinching every tie at his disposal. He’s made winning the Cup his raison d’etre for the rest of the year, which is music to McEnroe’s ears.
“He’s been our leader for so many years. He can taste it,” McEnroe said. “He knows that we’ve got one match at home. He’s won some huge matches on the road for us this year, which has been a testament to him improving his mental state. Certainly as the captain, it’s a pleasure to hear him say that Davis Cup is his No. 1 priority. You couldn’t ask for anything more than a player who puts that much emphasis, emotion and effort into every Davis Cup match.”
The Bryan Bros., McEnroe’s doubles team, have won 12 out of 13 matches in Davis Cup play, but will likely face a tough Russian duo in Roseville resident Dmitry Tursunov, who recently won the title at the Moscow tournament, and Igor Andreev.
The one shaky member of the U.S. team has been Blake, who has flamed out on the road, including in the team’s semifinal win over Sweden, when he lost to Thomas Johansson. But Blake has played reasonably well at home.
“I have no doubt he’s going to perform better at home,” McEnroe said. “I didn’t do a good enough job on the road, as my job was to get James to play better. The court will be very much to his liking. He’s got a good record against a lot of the Russian guys. James really feeds off the crowd, so I’m not concerned about him. [But] his performance at home in a huge match will be key for us.”
This is the second time that McEnroe’s group has reached a final. In ‘04, his boys were wasted on slow clay away in Seville, Spain. Now, they get to choose a quicker hard court, which should play in their favor. But the defending champs will not be an easy foe. They have tremendous depth and a number of competent players who like hard courts - No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko, the mercurial Mikhail Youzhny, Tursunov and Andreev (after calling off his Himalayan hijinks, two time Slam champ Marat Safin says he won’t play the final). Plus, many consider Russia’s captain, Shamil Tarpishchev, a genius, having led Russia to three Fed Cup and two Davis Cup titles in the last five years. He’s sure to mix and match his lineup in an attempt to confuse McEnroe. But the American captain isn’t concerned he will be out-thought and is confident that his squad will bust the dozen-year title drought.
“He’s got the luxury of having four or five players that are all very good that can play on different surfaces,” McEnroe said. “We’ve got a different situation. We’ve got two clear-cut top guys. That makes my job more predictable, but at the same time predictability is not necessarily a bad thing. He’s made some excellent moves, but we’ll be ready for whatever happens.”
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