My NetHead and Sweatshirt
The Oregonian Preview
The USA Today Preview
The USA Today Pullout
I'm late, late, late to the party on this one because I stayed out drinking too long last night and slept in too late. Savannah has some recaps on her blog so check them out. I won't even be able to bring you all my great photos and video clips till later today because I don't have the time to format it all correctly.
Meantime, here's a few Yahoo! shots and my drive-by summaries.
James Blake d Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 7-6(3)
Suffice it to say, James Blake had his Mauresmo moment against Mikhail Youzhny. After the match, he said, "You can't get to the Top Ten in the world and make a Davis Cup final and not be mentally tough so I wanted to come out here and prove that today." The crowd roared.
It was a great match. Scintillating shotmaking. Momentum shifts. High drama. The crowd seemed to keep waiting for the other shoe to drop any time Blake got some momentum, the hush that fell over it seemed to say "Here we go again." But playing against his European brother, also known for his lapses, let us know that we could hold on to hope. No heart attacks at all, people. I was calm and revved up all at the same time, and remained extraordinarily positive throughout the second rubber, refusing to curse Blake for even failing to serve out the match at 5-4. He did a great job recovering from all his lapses during the match and right before the fourth set tiebreak, Anthony, one of the founding netheads proclaimed, "It's going to be 7-3 for Blake." I concurred.
Even after Blake fell behind a minibreak, we stuck to our guns. Blake blasted some of his trademark returns that put Mikhail Youzhny on his back foot and he regained ascendency in the tiebreak. 7-3 it was. After his victory, he threw a ball into the crowd towards the NetHeads and guess who caught it?
Yours truly.
As a kid, I used to pray for a baseball to fly my way in the Milwaukee County Stadium that housed all the Brewers games. I never got lucky.
So I will cherish this lucky catch. And make a bid to get him to sign it later.
It was a clutch performance from a man against the most in-form player on the Russian team, and history might tell the tale that he was the hero of this final.
Andy Roddick d Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-4, 6-2
In the opening match, Andy Roddick did what he had to do to take out Dmitry Tursunov in straights. Which was slice the backhand, slice the forehand, slice the backhand and draw error upon error from Tursunov who didn't know if he should slice back or try to hit out. Nothing worked for him.
It was a perfect gameplan executed almost without flaw.
When Andy stepped up to serve for the match on match point, the crowd went crazy. Andy took it all in and his face flushed with emotion. I thought he'd cry before he served. But he held it together to give the USA a 1-0 lead and told us all that we'd have to do what we could to get Blake through the next match.
Mission accomplished.
And since my dungeness crab benedict with chevre and oven roasted tomatoes just arrived, I'll have to sign off for now.
More, more, more later....
Go USA!!!
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