Davis Cup Journal: part 4

Bad, Bad Losses, A Camera Mini-Crisis, and a Detour into the Bizarre

by John Yandell

The U.S. got smoked 2-0 in the singles today. My inside source was right when he predicted only one of our singles players even had a chance, he just got the player wrong. It was a day that started out badly, got worse, and ended going from the bizarre to the absurd. 

Todd Martin lost in 3 straight sets, and despite what he said in the press conference about having a lot of chances, to me he never really looked like he could win the match. Sure he had a strong first service game and then broke his Spanish opponent Albert Costa, but after that, it just never looked like Todd was in control, or on the verge of taking control.

Costa kept the ball deep and Todd couldn’t really generate any pressure off the ground.  He came in, but got passed at key times, and surprisingly, his serve didn’t really cause Costa major problems. Todd always looks kind of plodding and low energy and he seemed more that way than usual. 

So that was depressing.  But while that was going on, I was having other equally depressing problems with the Spanish television authorities. In addition to covering the Davis Cup for TennisONE, I’m doing some filming for our non-profit research foundation, Advanced Tennis (www.AdvancedTennis.com). We’ve got the support of ESPN, and Dennis Deninger, the coordinating producer, who set it up for me to film, so we can study the speed and trajectory of the ball on red clay compared to hard courts. We already have some surprising data. Clay isn’t “slow” at all in the way most people assume - but more on that later. 

Anyway, we planned to film with two stationary digital cameras set above the court. I tested the set up yesterday and everything was perfect. Then today, at the start of Todd’s match, just as I’m hitting the record button on Camera 1,  I look over and see some security guy actually physically removing Camera 2 from the other TV platform.  

Now this filming had all been cleared by the ITF and ESPN, but the Spanish guys were very adamant - ONLY Spanish TV cameras allowed on the platform. The language barrier didn’t help things. But that wasn’t the only problem, I found out - they had changed their minds on one of the ESPN broadcast cameras positions as well. 

We tried to straighten it with various Spanish authorities, but no luck. So I had to improvise and ended up babysitting Camera 2 in one of the top rows of the seats, fully in the middle of about a thousand excited Spanish fans, who, understandably, did not care in the slightest about jumping up and down and blocking my views. 

Furthermore, as if things weren’t going well enough already, I also had some exposure problems with the camera, and became mentally and emotionally convinced I was producing totally or mostly worthless footage. Luckily that turned out to be untrue - and was probably just some kind of mental artifact of the various, previous negative events - but it seemed real and depressing enough at the time. 

Meanwhile what about the tennis, you ask? Well I thought Jan-Michael Gambill was going to lift me right out of my depression when he came out and absolutely smoked Alex Corretja 6-1 in the first. Unlike Todd, he didn’t seem bothered by the heavy, looping Spanish style, was able to crush some groundstroke winners, dominated on several occasions at the net, and served huge. He was making McEnroe look like a genius. For the first time since play began, the miracle in Spain concept didn’t seem completely ridiculous.

Then Gambill played a really close game on Corretja’s serve at around 1-1 in the second, and had several break points but didn’t convert. Corretja had looked really tight, but suddenly he started to relax and take control, and went on to win the second. Early in the third, Jan Michael, who had looked high energy and very positive, started to show some negative body language. Even though he did have a break in the fourth, Corretja just wore him down, and ended up winning the last 3 sets in a row to take it in 4.

So that sucked. Jan Michael was really cool in the press conference, though, I thought. He was burning to win that match, and was very disappointed. “Right now, I’m pissed off at the world,” he said, but somehow it didn’t seem negative. He was also dying to play doubles tomorrow. 

Which brings us to McEnroe - I’ve seen him look much worse - he was actually fairly courteous with the usual questions in the press conference. He also said that, despite the fact he hadn’t made it happen consistently with the top players, he wasn’t ready to quit as captain yet, and was going to try to honor his 3 year deal with the USTA. And he gave various doubles scenarios - it’s probably Chris Woodruff with either Todd or Jan Michael. Look for Spadea to play singles on Sunday. 

So with the day apparently at a close, we move from the depressing to the absurd. And in a weird way this made me laugh and kind of put it all back in perspective. Remember Camera 1?  Well Camera 1 had been in one of the unused radio broadcast booths at the top of the stadium. 

I go back to retrieve it and the overwhelming smell when I open the door tells me something is terribly, terribly wrong. I look inside and what do I see? A major member of the international tennis media, who had just relieved himself in a paper bag - and to make matters worse, his aim has been less than totally accurate.

“They really don’t have enough bathrooms around here do they?” I noted. 

“No kidding,” he replied.  

Actually that’s true - there was exactly one bathroom outside the stadium for 14,000 people. I am totally perplexed as to how the Spanish fans handled it, but apparently they just don’t use the bathroom at tennis events. Since I’d been looking for this guy anyway, I decided not to let the opportunity pass. 

“Hey, I’ve been wanting to tell you about our ball speed research for Advanced Tennis,” I said. 

“Ok,” he said, “how about tomorrow?” 

Back at the hotel I ran into Pat McEnroe and couldn’t resist telling him the story.

“That’s pretty much a fitting way to end the day,” he said, walking off shaking his head. 

Guess I’ll have to go over to watch the doubles just to see if that’s the end of it or if something really, really weird is going to happen tomorrow.