A Team Effort
by Jim Courier
Well, we’ve taken the first step. Our first-round tie vs. the Slovak Republic in Oklahoma City was a great experience -- a bonding experience for our team and a maturing experience for our young players. I think we learned a lot about each other through the course of the week, and I like what I see. This is a great group of guys who have come together under Patrick McEnroe, who has proved himself as a smart, insightful, motivating captain. This is a team that’s come a long way in a short time. Last October we were playing just to stay in the World Group. Now, we look at ourselves as the team to beat.
This was my first tie in an official capacity as coach. I’d first pitched the idea to Patrick last year because I always loved Davis Cup and wanted to stay involved when I stopped playing. I know the pressures and the variety of responsibilities that the captain has to handle at every tie, so I thought there might be a role for me to help out, to take some of those pressures off of him. Patrick and I have always been good friends, so we both just thought it would be a natural and easy fit as a working relationship. We tried it last year in Winston-Salem, N.C., and it went really well, so we’ve firmed it up for this year. It’s great for me to be back in the Davis Cup fold.
It’s great for all of us to have Pete Sampras back in the Davis Cup fold, as well. Obviously, when you can add a guy who’s arguably the greatest player of all time to your team, that’s going to be a huge plus. But Pete brings a lot more to the team than an imposing game. He brings an impressive -- and inspiring -- presence.
We arrived in Oklahoma City on Sunday, largely the same cast of characters we had in Winston-Salem. This is the second time in a row that Patrick has decided to bring along a five-man squad and have a playoff for playing positions. Andy Roddick, James Blake, Todd Martin all were back. Patrick added Mardy Fish, and with Pete coming into the mix, the early part of the week was kind of a feeling out process. These young guys are all so reverential toward Pete. What’s nice about the way we organize things is that the personal coaches don’t come in until Thursday. That forces the players to bond more because they can’t go into their personal cocoons.
Pete is not going to be outspoken; he’s going to be a team leader by example. His example sets the tone, and the guys pick up on his high level of professionalism by watching how he prepares. For a guy like Mardy Fish, who had not been exposed to Davis Cup and had not been around Pete a lot, that’s an eye-opener, a lesson in how the best players become the best. Now he sees that Pete doesn’t just get by on all of his skills. He actually does put in the work – lots of work.
The singles spots were decided coming in, with Pete and Andy the obvious choices. Doubles, long a problem spot for our team, was where the decision had to be made. It’s a little more complicated putting together a doubles pairing than it is to select singles players because one guy can be playing better than another but may not necessarily pair up well. So we had a lot of playoff doubles with different pairings. We sort of knew that James was going to be one half of any doubles pairing because that’s who Patrick wanted as the third singles player. So basically, it came down to Todd and Mardy, and since there was no real clear-cut winner, the choice to go with Mardy was really Patrick pushing for the future. We knew we were facing something of a depleted Slovak squad, with their top two players – Karol Kucera and Dominik Hrbaty – not making the trip due to injuries, so Patrick saw this as a great opportunity for Mardy to get his feet wet in Davis Cup competition.
But Todd is the consummate professional, and while I’m sure he was disappointed – after all, everybody comes here wanting to play – he’d never show that disappointment. That’s what makes Todd such a vital member of this team. He accepts Patrick’s decision and then it’s just, "OK, let’s go win." There are many great things you can say about Todd, both as a player and a human being, but in this situation, he’s so helpful with the young guys. He compliments and encourages them in practice. If he’s thumping them, he’ll stop and say, "Hey you might want to try this…." He’s so giving of his wisdom to the younger players, and not many players would do that when they’re still competing.
After a solid week of practice, we were full of confidence going into the matches on Friday: Pete playing Davis Cup rookie Karol Beck and Andy taking on Jan Kroslak. But in Davis Cup, you can throw out individual rankings and achievements. There’s something special about this competition that makes everyone pick it up a notch.
Pete’s match with Beck was a perfect example of that. Beck came out firing, playing like he had nothing to lose. Pete had never seen him play before, and it is tricky playing someone you’ve never played when you don’t have a definitive game plan other than to play your game, which in Pete’s case is usually good enough. I wouldn’t have guessed that Pete would have dropped a set to him, but I don’t think Pete is physically 100%, and that affects the mechanics of the serve. Once he slowed it down a bit and found his rhythm, he was fine. Believe me, we never thought he was going to lose. The match may have been a bit more complicated than we’d thought, but Pete will invariably find a way to win.
And for Pete, winning a pressure match like that when you’re not playing your best is a big boost. I think the reason Pete came back to Davis Cup was his desire to get some of these big matches under his belt, to use them as a springboard to winning majors. I think he wants to send a message this year to those people who have been writing him off.
I was back and forth during the match, cheering on Pete and checking on Andy, just to make sure he wasn’t back there in the locker room expending too much energy while watching the match. Andy gets so pumped up for Davis Cup, and I can relate because I wore my heart on my sleeve the same way when I was a young player. Once you’re on the court, you can channel those energies, but the nerve-racking thing is the waiting and watching. So that’s another of my responsibilities on this team: We’ve got three young guys, and I keep an eye on them, making sure they’re not expending that energy that they should be expending on the court.
There’s never any energy shortage when it comes to Andy. If there has ever been a guy made for the showcase that is Davis Cup, it’s Andy. I thought Kroslak came out and played well above what his normal game is, but Andy is so inspired by the situation, there was never any doubt about who was going to win this match. Once Andy loosened up and his ball started penetrating a little bit, he handled his older and more experienced opponent well. He’s still going to get a little over-excited at times, but it’s almost as if you see Andy maturing right before your eyes. You can definitely tell that he cares and that he’s inspired to play for his country and his teammates. Above all, what I enjoy about Andy is he has fun with what he’s doing out here. Sure, he takes it very seriously, but he enjoys it, and that’s important.
I enjoyed watching James and Mardy step up on Saturday in the doubles, as well. This was a huge match for us as a team, given the problems we’ve had with doubles. And it was a huge match for these guys, as well, wanting to play well and clinch the tie for us, take some pressure off our singles guys for Sunday. I couldn’t have been prouder of their effort.
I never know what’s going to happen when rookies go out there. It’s hard to explain the unique atmosphere of Davis Cup play, but it really is unlike anything else. James had two matches under his belt in singles but no Davis Cup doubles experience, and the two don’t play routinely together on tour. They are good friends, so that helps, but again, you just never know what you’re in for in Davis Cup. But Mardy came out and served well in the first game, and they were off and running. They had a little hiccup in the second set, but Patrick quickly got them refocused and, from there, they played great. And what was especially pleasing was seeing the ebb and flow of it. James was playing better in the beginning, and then Mardy picked it up. They really worked great as a team, and that’s what doubles is all about.
A good deal of the confidence these two young guys had out there is directly due to Patrick. Before they ever took the court, he made it clear that were they to lose, it wasn’t going to be the end of their Davis Cup careers. That’s a very heads-up maneuver on his part. Because of our poor performance in doubles over the years, there has been that sort of added pressure for any doubles team that we put out there, but that kind of pressure, where you’re thinking you might get yanked at any moment, is unfair. And certainly for players of their age, they have a lot of years to get better and try to become mainstays on the team. They are always going to have their opportunities.
So it’s on to round two for us, happily, another home tie against Spain. We’re pumped because we do see ourselves as the team to beat. The whole team concept that Patrick has put into place is really starting to take hold and will only build over the course of the year. We’ve got a great group of guys – guys who are all committed to holding up that Davis Cup when this whole thing is over. We’ve just taken the first step, and I realize it is a long run. But we’ve got the guys who can go the distance.
Source: http://www.usta.com/pagesup/news18703.html