Sunday, September 23, 2007

USA & Russia Advance to Davis Cup Final

by Craig Hickman







Wow. I finally got some predictions right. German and Russia go down to the wire, and USA wins 4-1, just as I foresaw.

Think this win didn't mean a lot to Andy Roddick? With James Blake unable to play tennis, he handled the pressure, took care of business, and made Jonas Bjorkman, who played rather well, look rather ordinary today. He practically kissed the Teraflex after clenching the tie.

He maintains his perfect winning record of 9-0 when playing to close out a tie for team USA. The best in US Davis Cup history. And this weekend, he was perfect on serve, too.

"If you would have told me going into this weekend that I wasn't going to get broken for the entire weekend, I would have looked at you like you were a little bit nuts, a little bit crazy," Roddick said. "But I kind of found a groove. I guess I was able to just build upon what I did at the [U.S.] Open. … My serve definitely, definitely was able to bail me out at some pretty key moments this weekend."

But Bjorkman gave Andy credit for elements of his game.

"Sometimes it doesn't look that he moves well, but he does," said Bjorkman. "Sort of the way he moves, long steps, it looks maybe sometimes not so smooth, but he's always there.

"Everyone speaks about his serve, but I think sometimes they forget about the variety of his game. He actually has good movement back from the baseline and also he makes a lot of returns. He's always been a great fighter. I think his backhand is much better now. I would say when I played him three years ago, you felt that if you came in on a good approach, it was really tough for him to make a pass. I think now he's much more confident to hit it."

So much for a one-dimensional, robotic, mindless ball basher.

I didn't watch enough of the Germany - Russia tie to say much about it, but I'm happy as hell Russia pulled it out.

We will host a Davis Cup final for the first time in forever.

Go, USA!


Match Reports
Roddick sends USA to the final
The Russians are coming...to the USA

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