It was Davis Cup weekend, with matches taking place all over the world. Though I don't always like the idea of Davis Cup every year, several times during year, with the players having to choose whether to expend even more energy to play in a couple more best of five matches in an already exhausting season, it can make for some pretty high drama. There were several examples of that on this occasion.
Since I'm from the U.S. I will start with that. On Friday team USA and team Serbia ended up splitting sets, with John Isner losing to Novak Djokovic and Sam Querry pulling out a high intensity five setter against Victor Troicki. Most people assumed, with the #1 Bryan Brothers playing the doubles rubber against Nenad Zimonjic and virtual unknown Ilija Bozoljac, that it was almost a given it would soon be 2-1 USA. Many were saying Bozoljac was the weak link and assuming straight sets. They didn't bargain for the incredible fight the Serbians put up, taking the first two sets in tiebreaks. The Bryans came back to level it in the next two sets and then the match really began. With no tiebreak in Davis Cup in the fifth set it became a battle of wills to hold serve and each team did their job with amazing veracity. It was quite nerve wracking watching from my couch as the score crept higher and higher. Finally, in the 27th game of the set, the Bryan Brothers faltered and the Serbian team came up with a break. In spite of tremendous crowd support for the U.S., team Serbia pulled off an incredible victory, clinching it at 15-13. All credit to them for an amazing win against the best doubles team of all time.
The drama continued the following day for the Serbian team. Djokovic was due to play Sam Querry. Though Querry has beaten Djokovic before, it still appeared it would be a fairly easy win for world #1 Novak Djokovic. However, in only the 2nd game of the match Djokovic turned his ankle mid point. He continued on to finish the point, only to fall to the ground as soon as it ended in obvious pain.
The big question was would he be able to continue. When he was barely able to get off the court it certainly didn't appear he would be able to. But the responsibility he felt in getting a victory for his country propelled him on and with some extra wrapping on the ankle and pain pills he continued to put forth great effort and energy. Though he did drop the second set, soon he was on a roll and easily completed the victory for his team. There is certainly speculation now, however, as to what this means for him in his next couple scheduled tournaments beginning the clay court season.
It was quite an exciting weekend for Canadian tennis fans. The Canadian Davis Cup team has reached a new milestone - a trip to the DC semifinals, something they had never achieved before. After splitting matches with visiting team Italy on day 1, their doubles team of Nestor and Pospisil did what the Bryan brothers weren't able to do - they closed out another five setter with the exact same fifth set score as the American-Serbian match - 15-13, giving Canada a 2-1 lead. Milos Raonic had the honor of clinching the winning match for Canada, which will take them to Serbia in the fall for their first semifinal. You can tell what the victory meant to Raonic.
And finally I have to give some props to the team from Great Britain. They were playing against Russia, not in the main draw of Davis Cup but in one of the lower tiers trying to gain entry into the elite group for next year. Without their main man Andy Murray, they were playing with low ranked players who haven't been able to do much at the normal ATP level. Down 0-2 after the first day of competition, their chances were pretty slim. But at that point what did they have to lose? After getting the doubles point to give them a slight chance, first number 214 James Ward came back from being down 2 sets to 1 to pull off the 5 set upset against Dimitri Tursonov. But the likelihood of world number 325 Dan Evans, with all the pressure in the world sitting on his shoulders, beating someone ranked 245 places above him seemed virtually impossible. Yet it turned out to be a fairly straight forward straight set win for an inspired player trying to get his team back into the World Group again. Incredible effort by team Great Britain.
Quite an inspiring weekend to lead us into the clay court season.
It was a busy tennis week this last week I realized as I was trying to find time to watch four different finals on Sunday. As I digested my disappointment that I wouldn't be watching Roger Federer in either the semifinal or final of Rotterdam I had to remind myself that I am a tennis fan, not just a Fedfan, and that I could still enjoy watching some good tennis even though I wasn't watching my favorite. So putting my disappointment aside I was able to appreciate the good matches that were still on the docket for the weekend.
In spite of this, though, I admit that none of the matches turned out the way I had hoped. Though I for the most part like Juan Martin Del Potro and would usually want him to win when he's not playing Roger, I couldn't help but feel the pain for Julien Benneteau for his previous losses in finals and really wanted to see him break through this time. Almost the whole match though it felt like he was just trying to keep up with the great play of Delpo and in the end there really was nothing he could do against someone playing this well. JMDP deserved this win, after a poor showing in last year's final, and poor Benneteau once again had to face another disappointment. Though not one of my favorites, and certainly a threat always now to Federer, I really hope he gets his breakthrough title at some point before he retires.
In the women's final, though I'm not always one to cheer for Serena, in this case after the emotion shown after regaining #1 I was really hoping she would be holding the trophy at the end to supplement her great accomplishment. She just didn't seem herself in this match, though, never seeming fully comfortable, and Victoria Azarenka wasn't about to be intimidated. I'm sure it felt so good to her to prove that she had been the valid #1 by beating her replacement. It will be interesting to see upcoming matches between the two.
I didn't see the full final between Nadal and Nalbandian, really only some of the second set, but my impression of what I saw was that Rafa still wasn't playing like his normal self, making quite a few errors, but when Nalbandian was in a great position with two breaks in the 2nd set he just folded and gave it away. I think it will be a test for Nadal in his next tournament where Ferrer will also be playing, so we'll see what his form is by the end of February for his next tournament. I'm sure he felt very happy to be holding another trophy, though, whether he played his best or not.
In the final match of the day I was really hoping to see Tommy Haas pull it off. I have liked Tommy for a long time, and I think it's a real inspiration to see him playing great tennis at the age of 34 after a long injury timeout. He really didn't even have a chance, however, with the way Milos Raonic was playing. I don't know what it is about the conditions in San Jose, but he wasn't giving an inch on his service games, and the return winners that he was hitting on Tommy's service games were incredible. I'm sure he wishes he could buy the tournament himself to keep it in San Jose where he has had so much success, winning it three times in a row. To be honest, though, what I was thinking at the end of the match was that I really hope he's not in Federer's draw for Indian Wells!
The match of the tournament so far definitely has been the 5 hour nail biter between Djokovic and Wawrinka, not just because of its length and scoreline (which ended 12-10 in the 5th) but because of the high intensity in level of play for the full 5 hours. Stan started out on fire, breaking the #1's serve over and over again to win the first set 6-1 and start the second set also up a break. It looked like he could end up with a pretty quick two set lead before reality closed in, his level dropped a bit, and Novak upped his game. Though Djokovic went on to take the second set and then the third, the impressive part was that Stan kept fighting through the entire 5 hours, never giving into discouragement, and he continued to pressure Novak with sizzling winners firing from his racquet. It really looked like it could go either way through that long 5th set, but as in so many cases champions seem to have that tiny bit extra that pulls them through these pressurized moments. I was very disappointed for Wawrinka that after such a hard fought battle both physically and mentally, that he wasn't able to come away with what would have been a huge upset win against the three time Aussie champion. In spite of not earning the win, however, I believe he certainly earned much respect in the locker room for pushing Novak Djokovic to the brink of defeat in the Round of 16.
The only man left in the tournament who still hasn't lost his serve after four rounds is Roger Federer. It was agreed pretty much across the board that Roger had the most difficult draw of those favored to to be holding the trophy at the end of the fortnight. He put on another clinical display of great tennis in his fourth round match against Milos Raonic, a dangerous player who has taken a set off him at each of their prior three meetings. Not even facing a break point the whole match, he served great and and was once again able to keep his unforced error count extremely low. Interestingly, he has faced very different types of players in each of the rounds so far and has had the answers for every one. Obviously things can change a lot from one match to the next and he will undoubtedly have his hands full with Jo Wilfred Tsonga. Fed fans have to be pleased, though, with how sharp he looks so far, including his great movement around the court. With 35 consecutive quarterfinals in majors now, he continues to add to his impressive record that sets him so far apart from all others.
And finally, I'm glad that Roger is taking care of his back playing in the cool conditions. I loved his post match interview with Jim Courier where he claimed the undershirt was because he needed to take care of his big muscles underneath. And his comments about his skinny left arm being such a threat were hilarious. Great to see him so relaxed and enjoying himself.
