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Davis Cup Journal:
The Miracle in Spain? part 3
by John Yandell
El milagro en Espana. Translation: “The miracle in
Spain.” That’s about what it
will take - a real miracle - for the U.S. to pull off a win against the
Spaniards when the Davis Cup semifinal starts Friday in this North
Atlantic beach town. Now I’ve said for years John McEnroe was a shaman.
But this would prove it.
When he chooses to turn that famous energy on people
in a positive way, amazing things happen. I
know because I’ve experienced it a few times myself. Or just ask Chris Woodruff, who called McEnroe “the greatest
tennis coach ever” after Mac’s input seemed to turn Woodruff
completely around in his big fifth match singles win against one of the
Black brothers in Zimbabwe.
“Anything’s possible.” I’ve heard McEnroe say
that more than once, and sometimes, I’m know he believes it. But in this
case?
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So, after a few days in Madrid immersed in the world
of art and architecture, with, surprisingly, almost no tennis news in the
Madrid papers, we headed up to Santender to investigate the possible and
try to find out who the hell is actually playing for the
American team.
We thought the surprises would all be on the American
side. And there were surprises. The singles is Todd Martin and Jan Michael
Gambill, and the doubles is Chris Woodruff and Vince Spadea.
But Spain had a surprise too. The Spanish are going
with Alex Corretja and Albert Costa, and not playing hot young star Juan
Carlos Ferrero, the French semi-finalist, at least in Friday’s singles.
Their doubles on Saturday will be Costa and Juan Balcells.
So the suspense is over no John McEnroe, the player.
As McEnroe explained at the draw with his teammates looking on,
“I wanted to play but these guys talked me out of it.
They told me if I played they might desert me.”
The first match is Todd versus Costa, than Gambill
versus Corretja. Todd actually has a win over Costa on clay, but that was
five years ago. Last year he lost to him on clay in 3 sets. He’s 2-2
with Corretja, but Alex smacked him 3 and 2 last year in their only clay
court meeting.
Gambill has lost to Costa twice, but beat Corretja in
their only meeting two years ago, all of those matches on hard courts.
He’s never played either one on clay. I guess you can hope Wimbledon
boosted his confidence enough to bridge the gap between grass and clay.
So how’s the general ambience? The town itself is a
surprising disappointment, a crowded middle-class beach town with a lot of
ugly new architecture—an especially big come down after Madrid. The
stadium is a scary, shaky temporary scaffold that holds 14,000. But
there’s is a beautiful old red clay tennis club next to the stadium,
which is hosting the event. A
lot of dignitaries are buzzing around the club, Judy Levering the
President of the USTA, Pancho Segura, who has become a Davis Cup fixture -
and a lot of important looking Spanish officials I don’t recognize.
And what about the players’ moods? The Americans
split right after the press conference.
The Spaniards stuck around, smiled, and took lots of team pictures
in their matching suits. There’s a big nationalist buzz going on - and I
don’t mean pro American.
But the American players seem to be having a lot of
fun with each other. Several of them commented that the Mac boot camp for
Davis Cup hopefuls had been a really good week.
You know there’s been a lot of joking going on when you have
Chris Woodruff describing for the press how he had been crushing
McEnroe’s second serve. “Don’t pay any attention to him,” Mac
responded.
And there is also a grim determination to try to
somehow pull out the match. McEnroe kept saying the situation is
“tough” but also repeating his new mantra “We didn’t come here to
lose.” Along with a few clichés like: “The pressure is really on them
not us.”
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But a very knowledgeable insider, who must remain
nameless, doesn’t give the Americans much of a chance. Todd has some
small outside shot in singles, my friend says - but only if he can win
fast. 5 sets on the clay? The Spaniards are just too tough and too fit.
Gambill, confidence or not, is probably in for a real tough time. The
doubles, sure it’s a chance, but that doesn’t matter if we get toasted
in the singles, without Andre and Pete. Hearing him talk dimmed my hope
for the miracle in Spain…
Meanwhile back in the states Bob Larson’s internet news letter was reporting certain suggestive facts about America’s two most famous current non-team members.
First, Pete Sampras, who withdrew from the Davis Cup due to his shin injury suffered at Wimbledon, embarked on a “whirlwind media tour” orchestrated jointly by the ATP Tour, the USTA and Sampras' management firm, to publicize breaking Emmo’s Grand Slam singles title record. In Spain, it’s impossible to follow the American press, but supposedly this included a huge article in the New York Times sports section, an interview with Charlie Rose, a Today show appearance, a dozen satellite interviews in major media markets, an ESPN interview, and a press conference announcing Pete made the cover of the Wheaties box.
Now I’m the biggest Pete Sampras fan there is. I
also think that the media, who don’t get his dry wit, regularly
misunderstands him. I also think he has been more than under appreciated
for his many incredible achievements, which include putting his body on
the line for Davis Cup, most recently in Los Angeles, where after
clinching the U.S. win against the Czech Republic, I saw him literally
drag his injured leg out of the Forum--with a big smile on his face, I
might add. So it’s really great to see Pete getting all this major hype
out of his 13th Slam title.
BUT you’ve got to wonder. Given the split second
attention span of the world sports media, there’s no way this all would
have happened if he’d been in Santender this week trying to figure out
how to play rally points on red clay. So was he, in a way, lucky to have
been injured at Wimbledon? And, if he were healthy, would he still really
have gone to Santender? And if he had decided to play, just how much would
have that affected his performance or his recovery?
And, by the way, how does the USTA feel about helping create
Pete’s media hype while the Davis Cup team is over in Santender, more
than likely getting ready to twist in the wind?
Someone may have the answers to such questions (or a few good
guesses), but it’s not me.
Meanwhile, back to the Bob Larson gossip on that
other missing American Davis Cup star, Mr. Agassi. How is it, Larson
wondered, that when Jim Courier gets a ticket for going through a red
light at 3:00am and stopped for driving under the influence of alcohol, in
Athens, Georgia a while back, the whole country knows about it in six
hours. Yet, Andre Agassi gets rear ended in Las Vegas, Nevada on the way
home from the airport and no one knows about it for three days?
Now, I read the statement from the Davis Cup doctor about Andre’s injuries—severe back spasms and a rib and muscle injury so he couldn’t raise his right arm above his shoulder. It’s hard for me to believe that a doctor working for the USTA would make that up, but then there are people here who don’t find it difficult to believe it all. An interesting question, but one, which I doubt I’ll ever know the real answer.
Which leaves us with the Davis Cup tennis matches with the players actually playing, starting tomorrow…
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