Davis Cup Journal: part 5

It's All Over When it's Over

by John Yandell

To the outside world, it probably came as no surprise, that the U.S. couldn’t even win the doubles, which Todd Maritn and Chris Woodruff lost in 5 sets today to Alex Corretja and the unknown Juan Balcells, who unfortunately turned out to be a hell of a doubles player.

Balcells has “the greatest 83mph serve in the history of tennis,” according to McEnroe. And some great volleys, and some very good returns, and no visible signs of nerves. He stepped up and played very courageously on a big, big occasion for Spanish tennis, and I have to admire him.

The tough 5 set doubles victory catapulted the Spanish team into the finals versus Australia

So that makes it 3-0 Spain. The singles tomorrow? I said if this happened, I was taking an extra vacation day in Spain. So forget about the singles tomorrow, I plan to go to the beach and get a swim in the healing waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Spain is now in the final versus Australia, and gets to play at home again, the week of December 7 - maybe it really will be Barcelona this time. I was hoping to visit there in the first place - who knows maybe we’ll come back and see if Pat Rafter can do any better on the red dirt. (The home team thing works like this in Davis Cup - whoever was visiting team the last time the two countries played - last year or in 1940, it doesn’t matter - then that previous visiting team is host team for the next match. Spain last played Australia in Australia, so they host the final.)

So you’d have to like Spain’s chances - they’ve never won the Davis Cup and this may be their shot. And like I said, from the outside, it was hard to give the U.S. a chance here, or even think a “miracle” might be possible. In fact if I was home reading about it in the papers, I might have even been somewhat disinterested after the loss of Agassi and Sampras. I got into this because I thought John McEnroe would bring emotion and interest back to Davis Cup. But how interesting is a hopeless situation?

Still funny things happen when you actually go to an event live. You feel the personalities, the emotion, the event, and you start to think about the possibilities, even if they might be small. How exactly could the U.S. win this match with the players they have? Well, possibly a miracle.

After all the craziness and bizarre events yesterday, (see part 4), today I decided to actually focus on the match. So I sat right down in the photographers’ row with our TennisONE master of the Nikon digital camera, J. Gregory Swendsen, and saw the whole thing from 10 feet away. World class tennis is always amazing at close range, and this was particularly intense. As McEnroe points out, the thing that makes Davis Cup special is the way the crowds get into it. The Spanish crowd was very fair, but they did break into song in unison repeatedly after every great Spanish shot and before all the big points, and that was a bit scary.

Anyway, I decided I’d do it right and take actual match notes, which I almost never do. Just note the key points or exchanges in each set so I could actually report facts, just for a change of pace. I ended up with 17 pages of notes on the “critical” points, including 4 pages on the 5^th and deciding set.

Todd and Chris fought their hearts out but it wasn't enough.

But I can summarize with the words John McEnroe uttered when asked to tell the story of the match: “The story of the match?” he said repeating the question in an annoyed tone and scratching his head: ”missed opportunities.”

John has a theory that you get fewer chances on clay and you have to take advantage and try to get over the hump when they come up the first time, because you may not see them again.

Well, today the U.S. saw them time and time again, saw them come, and saw them go. For example, the U.S. immediately gets a break at 1-1 in the first. Then with Chris serving at 4-2, the Spaniards break him at love, with Corretja hitting a screaming, diving topspin lob over Woodruff on break point. But the U.S. breaks right back when Todd hits a beautiful insideout forehand short angled pass from the backhand side.

So Todd is serving for the first set. The Spaniards play two back on the first serve and it’s very effective. The U.S. team gets in and volleys deep to the middle but the ball keeps coming back. Corretja especially keeps nailing big groundstroke passes, and topspin lobs. It’s a very tight game, and we get a set point at ad in, but Todd misses a first volley. Then he digs out a lob over his head, tries to hit an overhead and finds the bottom of the net. Chris then misses a backhand volley, and poof! - it’s a tiebreaker.

We get up fast 4-1 in the breaker, then stay on serve with Todd serving at 4-3. He gets the first point, but at 5-3 Juan Balcells hits a let cord return that just dribbles over and ends up yielding an easy volley for the Spanish. But then serving at 4-5 Balcells double faults. So he’s now serving his second point at 4-6, double set point, for us. The Spaniards serve and volley on both balls on their own serves and in the next exchange with both at the net, Corretja hits a big overhead on a short lob from Todd.

Now Woodruff is serving at 6-5. He gets a first serve in to Corretja, but Todd inexplicably lets a return go past him down the line and it’s in about a foot. At 6-6 Chris pushes a first volley long. Then Corretja serves out the set with Balcells hitting two great volleys, the second one for a clean winner.

I could go on, but you get the idea, and I’m only up to page 3 in my notes. To make a long agonizing story short(er), we storm back and take the second 6-2. But we get down a break when Chris loses serve at 1-2 in the fourth. Both teams hold from there until Balcells serves it out at 5-3. It’s 2 sets to one for Spain.

And Mac was there till the bitter end, staying pumped up and positive.

The fourth set is another incredible nail biter. We get a break to go up 4-2. Todd serves for it at 5-3, but Spain breaks back in an extremely tight game. At deuce, Corretja hits an unbelievable reflex volley for a winner off a screaming overhead at his feet and the crowd goes nuts. Then he hits another huge forehand pass, and now it’s another breaker. In the breaker the teams stay even on serve till Balcells loses a point at 4-5. He holds his second point though, so Chris serves at 6-5. He hits a great forehand volley in a fast exchange and the U. S. forces a 5^th set. But it seems to take too much out of the American team.

After the break - during which the Spanish water the court, something McEnroe later says was not agreed on - Todd immediately loses serve at 0-1. Probably the emotional turning point of the match comes when, on break point the Spaniards scramble and retrieve about 5 solid overheads - everyone of which looks like a winner. Then one or the other, I forget which one, gets a big passing shot by the Americans.

Still we do manage to break back with Coretja serving at 3-1. But with Chris serving at 3-4, the death bell tolls. The Spanairds break him at love when Todd misses 2 easy volleys. Then Corretja rips a huge forehand pass and a backhand down the line return, both clean winners. After that, he quickly serves it out at love with Balcells basically running amuck at the net and smacking 3 dominant volleys on the last 3 points.

Todd and Chris fought their hearts out. Both of them played brilliantly at moments. But they just didn’t seem to both play well at the same time. One would hit a great shot and then the other would miss one that should be more or less routine for a world class player.

And Mac was there till the bitter end, staying pumped up and positive. But, I conclude, even a Shaman only has so much leverage in a given situation. His view of his first year in Davis Cup “surprising and disappointing.”

Then the last question: Any words of encouragement before the matches from Pete or Andre? Mac gets a look on his face I don’t think I’ve seen - one of hurt, disappointment, and acceptance all rolled into one. He kind of hunches down. “No,” he says, shaking his head.

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