I wasn't up early enough to watch Igor Andreev hand Tommy Haas his ass on a dirty platter, but I saw Philip Kohlschreiber fight tooth and nail to outlast Nikolay Davydenko in a tight fifth set. Great drama. Not a fan of the loooooooooooong points, but it was nice to see the underdog notch a win, even though I was rooting for Russia.
But then there's that James Blake. Ugh. We love his story, no? His great comeback against all odds. His run to the Top 10. His ability to win (small) titles. But he simply doesn't believe in himself on the big stages of tennis, and that's a big problem for me, for him, for the team he said had so much enthusiasm, it couldn't lose. I'll let tinamarie over at TAT, who attended the matches live, tell the tale of today's tape:
1:1 is not at all what I expected. The biggest surprises for me was PimPim's level of play after such a long break (however, the match didn't really feel close) and James Blake's attitude on court...I haven't seen many of his matches, so maybe that's normal for him, but he was just so negative. He seemed extremly annoyed with anything: ballboys, fans, umpires... I guess playing a Davis Cup match abroad isn't easy and maybe he was even right about some calls from the umpires, but I would still think a top ten player can handle such a difficult situation. Cursing, even hitting a ball towards some loud Swedish fans and -more generally- a completly negative body language wasnt at all what I expected from him. For me, it was amazing to see how much body langaue can tell you about the course of the match. Right before JB broke TJ in the third set, he was bouncing a little, running from his chair to the baseline, just showing some energy. and it was somehow clear to us he would take the next games. Afterall, he is a better player than TJ. But some errors in the beginning of the 4th set and his negative attitude was back. You could literally see that he wasn't going to win this match. And I am sorry to say this - but he really wouldn't have deserved it, either.
I could see it from the first ball. Blake didn't have any of the swagger he brings to the court when the J-Block is rooting him on from the stands. None of the enthusiasm he boasted. The double faults to drop serve were Dementieva-like. I found myself questioning why he was even out there to begin with.
Davis Cup is special. Some players excel at it. Others fail. Ivan Ljubicic can barely post at Slams, but he led Croatia to a Davis Cup championship two years ago. Not that Blake can post at Slams, but he plays much better in those than he does in Davis Cup. If I'm not mistaken he's won exactly two live rubbers in his Davis Cup tenure.
Patrick McEnroe needs to get a clue.
For his part Thomas Johansson played well. Serve bombs, returned with authority. Didn't have to do much defending at all. But having never beaten Blake before and coming into the match with his team at a deficit, it ought to have been a tougher out for the Swede. Thanks to Blake, it wasn't.
We can still win this tie, but our work just got more difficult. Simon Aspelin, with a different partner, just beat the Bob and Mike Bryan at the US Open. And Jonas Bjorkman is, well, Jonas Bjorkman. The doubles is no longer a gimme for the USA. Not that it ever was, but, thanks to Blake's listless performance, the Swedes will be playing with less pressure and the fans (and linespeople) on their side.
Andy Roddick continued his solid play of late and did what he had to do:
To complete my report though, I really have to give a lot of credit to Andy. His level of intensity and focus was amazing. Great body language, too. The crowd never really got into the match. One reason was that there hardly were any rallies; the points were unsually decided by serve. The other reason was that the match didn't seem as close as the scores might suggests. Not to take anything away from PimPim (Joachim Johansson), but I never had the feeling he could actually win. He made some great shots, but never really threatened Andy on his serve and made a lot of errors on big points. A couple of times, he had beautifully prepared a winner and then netted. Andy, on the other hand, never choked on big points and kept his great level of serve from the first to the last point of the match. Very impressive.
He'll be biting his nails for a few hours tomorrow.
So will I.
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