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  • Davis Cup: Be Careful What You Wish For

    4/19/08 8:51 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - With the Davis Cup semifinals five months away, the USA-Spain tie is probably the last thing on Spaniards’ minds in Valencia this week. Nonetheless, they are still sending a message to Patrick McEnroe and the rest of the U.S. team that trouble looms.

    Last weekend’s quarterfinal victory over France ensured that the United States would be traveling to Spain in September for a Davis Cup semifinal showdown. It’s hard to believe that the U.S. team would want to play Spain (surely on slow red clay) rather than Germany (Spain’s quarterfinal victim), but according to captain Patrick McEnroe, he did in fact want Spain.

    “I hoped we would have the chance to play Spain,” McEnroe said. “It’s the ultimate challenge, on slow red clay. I think we can do it. We’re the underdogs but I welcome the opportunity.”

    To say they are underdogs would be a gross understatement. That was the case when McEnroe said those words last weekend and that’s certainly the case now, seeing what the Spanish contingent is doing in Valencia this week.

    Fifth-seeded Nicolas Almagro has made his way to the final and he has not even lost a set in four matches. He is without question one of the best players in the world on clay right now, having two titles already this season on the red stuff and one win away from another. Oh yeah, and he probably won’t even crack Spain’s Davis Cup lineup.

    Almagro’s opponent in the final? None other than David Ferrer, who slumped on the U.S. hard courts but is back on track on the Valencia clay. Ferrer has been forced to go the distance in two of his four matches, and not surprisingly it was two other Spaniards (Fernando Verdasco, who even held match points, and Tommy Robredo) who extended him to three sets.

    It’s hard to imagine Andy Roddick and James Blake winning two of four singles rubbers on clay against any of the aforementioned Spaniards (three of four is necessary if the Bryan Brothers lose to a probable doubles team of Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez). But wait, I haven’t even mentioned Spain’s team leader yet; world No. 2 and one of the best clay-court players ever, Rafael Nadal, who is resting up this week for the more important Masters Series events.

    While it’s hard to take McEnroe seriously when he said he wanted a chance to play Spain on dirt, you have to respect his apparent confidence. It’s confidence he probably no longer has if he is paying any attention to the proceedings in Valencia.

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