Davis Cup - doneski

A few of my predictions held up. My biggest mis-prognostication, if such a term exists, was the forecast of a Chilean upset of Russia. Didn't happen. That's OK though, because both teams have some amazing players, and I was just guessing that Fena's amazing run of late could blast Chile past Mother Russia. I like Safin too though, so whatever.

Some thoughts...

• I'm glad that the USA played some nice tennis on clay for a change. Blake dropped his match which was disappointing, but Roddick showed us something in his win over Berdych. Apparently it was the first Davis Cup tie on clay that the US had won in 10 years. Impressive.
• I watched most of the tie on the VS network - apparently that is what OLN turned in to when it died - and I must say that the tennis was good and the commentary sucked. Lief Shiras, you're on alert.
• I liked how Roddick didn't let the clay phase him mentally; that's the key to being successful in ANYTHING, but especially clay court tennis. I know from experience too, because I played on some clay this weekend - sorry, no pics or highlights...check sportscenter though...
• I will say this about that: Clay is not the most enjoyable surface to play on if you've played on hard courts your entire life, but as long as you just make up your mind that you're going to be OK, it doesn't matter that much. That's what all the Americans need to do at the French.
  
  Look at Nadal - he won the French and made the finals at Wimbledon because he did not care that he was playing on grass. Tennis is tennis, to an extent. You have to be able to move on different surfaces to be successful, and yes, Nadal is a great mover, but still, it's a lot more mental than anyone will admit.
  
  And I can't believe I'm linking to this but Peter Bodo makes a solid point with this.
  
  That's all for now. I'm going to go hit for a little bit. It's 70 degrees in Pueblo right now and the sky is blue (alright, partially blue) and it is amazing. BUT, it's going to be 30 degrees for the next three or four days and our huge opener is on Friday. I am really looking forward to not hitting for three days and then playing an amazing team from ACU. We're so screwed.

Foggy weather =

...not so good tennis weather. I feel like I woke up in Seattle by way of London. We had one good day this week -- good meaning 67 degrees and sunny with no wind. It was amazing. By far the best day I can remember in a long time. Unfortunately yesterday and today have been foggy and cold and now a little snowy. Not the best weather for sports.

I can't wait for Davis Cup to start. I just hope we get it on TV here; the damn Tennis Channel is trying to monopolize TV coverage of the sport...bad news is that barely anyone GETS the Tennis Channel. I know they bought the rights to air at least one of the grand slams, so I guess I won't get to watch that one. Hopefully the OLN is still around, but since I can't find a link to it they might be out of business. That would be about right.

These are the matchups for all eight Davis Cup ties. Nothing else is going on, so here are my predictions. For the sake of time and accuracy, you'll just have to go without the score line. The winner will be sufficient

• FRANCE over Romania


• Croatia over GERMANY


• BELGIUM over Australia


• USA over CZECH REPUBLIC


• Spain over SWITZERLAND


• Sweden over BELARUS


• AUSTRIA over Argentina


• CHILE over Russia

Davis Cup is not the easiest thing to predict. In college matches (or most other levels of play, for that matter), if I have to play some guy from Mexico who is ranked 3rd in the region and hits the piss out of the ball, I'm just going to lose. I'm not good enough to keep up with him. I like to play people like that, but I'm probably not going to take many games off of him.

However, with Davis Cup, everyone is a professional. There is a certain level of quality that every player possesses, a certain degree of ability that gets them to that level in the first place. After that a lot of it is planning and mindset, conditioning and coaching. And oh yeah, emotion! You're playing for your country! How insane would that be? I want to go to a Davis Cup match sometime, but I guess I'll just have to put that on the list next to "Visit Anfield in May" on the list of things to do.

Nothing happening

Ben Kweller is telling me that nothing's going on, and sadly, that's how the tennis world is right now. The ATP is quiet for now because Davis Cup is about to start, and unlike other sports, no one is doing anything completely retarded to distract from the action. Is that really necessary?

I hope the Nuggets can begin to pull their heads out of their asses. Iverson is playing tonight (just checked) so that's good. Now Melo and AI can begin to dominate. And thank Scotty Crowe (by way of John Mayer) for this, and I guess thank Allen Iverson too, because it's just funny:

US vs. Czech Republic - Davis Cup Preview

The US is playing against the Czech Republic in Davis Cup action this weekend. I hope we don't suck. And yes, it is purely conincidental that ESPN decided to run the same story as me. This was purely spontaneous. Moving on.

There are three things (OK, there's more) that could really mess us up in this tie.

• Andy Roddick and James Blake are maaaaaybe not the best clay court players in the world. They are also playing against Thomas Berdych -- always a dangerous opponent.


• This goes with #1...it's on clay. Americans probably do need to train on it more, but they are still playing catch up to the rest of the world on hard courts.


• It's Davis Cup. It's an away match. It's a racous atmosphere. Anything can happen.

The good news is this: Roddick, Blake, and the Bryan brothers (the dubs team, never a concern) are playing just about as well as they can. Roddick disposed of some of the best players in the world at the Australian, and Blake is still playing an extremely high level of tennis.

I have all the confidence in the world about those guys, but Davis Cup is do or die; it's going to be fierce.

Now you can see what I was talking about

I haven't stopped thinking about the Achilles comparison (see previous post), so now I want you to see what I was talking about. Here it is:

And then because it is newsworthy, Xavier Malisse battled the elements and came back from being a set down on the second day of play to beat James Blake . Disappointing for me, to be sure, but that's a solid win for Malisse.


The weather has finally warmed up here too. In fact it was a glorious day to live in Colorado. I wanted to play outside but we had practice indoors still, but it was nice to go outside all sweaty and bask in the glow of the sun instead of sprinting to a freezing car in the kind of cold that makes it feel like the inside of your nose is falling out. I hope it stays.

Footwork - kind of important

So I was watching the movie Troy tonight, and in the midst of Brad Pitt kicking Hector's ass, I made a comparison that only I could make: Achilles had amazing footwork. Roger Federer has sick strokes, and Achilles could use a sword and throw the damn spear like no body's business, but how amazing must their footwork be to be able to dictate like they do (or did) in all of their matches and duels and stuff? I have been really working hard on my footwork lately when I've been playing because I have realized two things: it is without question the most important aspect of tennis, and I suck at it. I have been hitting so many balls while leaning back and away from the ball that I have been driving myself mad. So the new comparison is this: could Achilles beat anyone down if he was striking and leaning back at the same time? HELL no.

Watch this video, but when you do so, don't watch any of the strokes. I challenge you to just watch Federer's footwork. Don't look at the strokes, don't watch Hewitt...just look at Federer's feet. I know it's kind of an older clip (from the 2004 TMC), but the audio is really keen at court level. Just keep an eye on Fed and listen. Watch how he never stops moving, the little steps he takes to set up the shot, how he might be a foot and a half behind the baseline but is always moving forward to hit the ball and then steps inside the baseline when he gets a ball he wants to hit. That is why he's number 1 in the world. And watch Troy too, it's not a bad movie.

ATP round-robin

The ATP has decided to shake things up a little bit this year. Instead of the normal 32-player draw or whatever each tournament features, the first few days of competition will now be dominated by a round-robin format. Essentially, players are grouped and play the other players in their group and the winners advance out to the elimination phase, which usually begins as the QF. This means that you can still lose in your round-robin group but win the tournament. Some players like it, some don't. The only time I have used round-robins is at small local tournaments when there aren't enough players to fill out a full draw sheet. I think it's kind of stupid that the ATP is doing that on tour though. It is how they run the Tennis Masters Cup, which makes sense, because if you have the 8 best players in the world, why not have them play more matches and beat on each other a little bit more for the benefit of the audience? It doesn't make much sense to do it at every tournament though, which is probably why the ATP is just trialing it at select tournaments this year. Brad Gilbert doesn't like it, which is good enough for me to not like it. And I agree with him, on-court coaching would be much better. It is allowed at every other level of the game, why not at the top?

In other news, the US Davis Cup team was announced, and it was no surprise. In fact it's barely news worthy. The line up will be Andy Roddick, James Blake, the Bryan brothers at dubs. They are playing the Czech Republic on indoor clay Feb. 9-11. It will be interesting for sure...I hope they don't lose. Aside from Thomas Berdych there is no one that should pose a threat to the US players, but because it's Davis Cup, and because we suck on clay, anything could happen.