SANTIAGO, Chile?The transcendent and sometimes charged poetry of Pablo Neruda it was not. The U.S. Davis Cup team opted for a different page from the career of Chile?s famed Nobel laureate?stubborn defiance?and emerged from the weekend?s tie against Chile with a hard-fought 4-1 victory.
Credit Andy Roddick, who won both of his singles matches, including Sunday?s opening contest against scrappy Paul Capdeville, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-3. That gave the U.S. an insurmountable 3-1 lead at the Estadio Nacional Court Central. (The Americans would finish with a 4-1 victory after John Isner beat Guillermo Rivera-Aranguiz 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5.) It also pushed Roddick?s record in clinching matches to a gaudy 12-0, including five on the road, which is certainly one of the more remarkable records in Davis Cup history (no comparable statistics are available to verify where it stands all-time).
But credit must also go to those other Davis Cup stalwarts, Mike and Bob Bryan, who secured a 2-1 lead for the U.S. with a convincing doubles victory Saturday.
?I don?t get to clinch without Bob and Mike putting me in position 11 times,? said Roddick, who sat out Davis Cup last year to reduce wear-and-tear on his body. ?Just because they play on Saturday doesn?t mean their point is worth any less. I?m just the one that gets to finish and play on Sunday.?
Next up for the Americans is a tantalizing quarterfinal clash with Spain, which defeated Belgium 4-1. ?A blockbuster matchup,? said Roddick, especially since his hometown of Austin, Texas, is the early favorite to host. San Antonio and Albany, N.Y., are the other venue finalists, according to the USTA.
For new captain Jim Courier, it was a satisfying, if slightly hairy debut, after John Isner blew a two-set lead to Capdeville on Friday. ?They certainly put a scare in us, no question about that,? the four-time major winner and former No. 1 said.
But the dapper Floridian was a model of comportment, steering the mostly veteran team through what has been the USA?s Achilles heel?an away tie on clay?with poise and clarity. He did not let the heavily favored Yanks underestimate their opponents, and now, for the first time since the opening round in 2009?four ties ago?they will be at home, waiting for Nadal & Co.
?Our guys have room for improvement,? added Courier, a member of two championship teams himself. ?There is no question about that. But they got better over the course of the weekend, which is natural and normal?.I liked the way all of our guys responded to adversity out there.?
The U.S. has not played a deciding fifth match since 2000, and, thanks to Roddick, that streak remains intact. Still, Capdeville, Friday?s hero who needed more than four hours to beat Isner, did not make it easy. The eighth-ranked Roddick broke Capdeville, a player ranked 157 places below him, in the fifth game of the first set but then went into a sudden funk. He dropped 11 of the next 12 points during a four-game run as an emboldened Capdeville took the early lead.
Roddick said he was ?concerned? but he stuck to his strategy. ?I wanted to make it a boxing match,? he said. ?I wanted to try to take his legs out first.? Capdeville survived two break points at 3-4 with some big forehands and pushed Roddick to a second-set tiebreaker, but nerves, his tiring legs, and the occasion finally seemed to get to him. The admittedly nervous player tightened up in the tiebreak and hit a string of tight errors to even the match.
From then on, Roddick patiently ground Capdeville down, breaking him in the first and last games of the third set and once again in the fourth as the Chilean was forced to try to shorten the points. ?He had to change his game plan starting in the third set,? explained Roddick, who improved to 33-11 in 24 Davis Cup ties and to 8-9 on clay. ?Early on he was playing very patient, very high, kind of wanting me to force the issue.?
A few moments after his win, Roddick repeated a kind of scissor kick move in front of the USA bench?a move, he said later, inspired by the Chuck Norris quotes the team had been trading all week. He also did it Friday after beating Nicolas Massu. To Courier, it was a team effort. ?Andy won that match but we have to give John an assist for putting Capdeville through a five-set grind on Friday,? he said. ?No doubt that Capdeville was feeling it physically and Andy wanted him to feel it.
Although every away match for the U.S. nearly always means a date on clay, the conditions during the weekend were far from intolerable. The clay court was of decent quality and speed. The balls didn?t fluff up like Jiffy Pop. The slight altitude (Santiago is roughly 1,700 feet above sea level) meant shots moved through the air?an advantage for the big-hitting Americans. Even the crowd seemed tame, especially in a part of the world where some of the most raucous ties in Davis Cup history have unfolded (or, if you like, imploded). It almost felt like a new decorum had arrived. ?I thought they were very respectful,? Courier said.
Credit also must go to the Chileans. Despite a massive paper disadvantage?not one team member ranked inside the Top 150?and a depleted squad, they took their own page from Neruda, whose literary life coincided with a fierce political activism that at one point caused him to flee the country and live in exile. They never waived the white flag.
Roddick singled out the doubles team of Massu and Jorge Aguilar, whose spirit never broke despite playing the top-ranked Bryan brothers. ?They were down two sets and they break (serve) in the third and it?s as if they broke in the fifth,? said Roddick. ?I?d have to say, I thought the Chilean team showed a lot of character this weekend. They competed extremely hard?.They never gave an inch. They made us earn our victory.?
Words, no doubt, that would make Neruda proud.
Douglas Robson is a frequent contributor to USA Today and TENNIS.
Source: http://feeds.tennis.com/~r/tenniscom-features/~3/k8CS5wT93Tc/
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