Jim Courier Changes Hats From Interviewer To Davis Cup Captain

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 28th January 2014

Jim Courier Changes Hats From Interviewer To Davis Cup Captain

epa03094294 US Davis Cup Captain Jim Courier plays a ball during a training session in the Forum Arena in Fribourg, Switzerland, 06 February 2012. Switzerland faces USA in the World Group first round. EPA/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT |

Jim Courier has spent the last fortnight forefront in the public perception at the Australian Open, spearheading the Channel 7 television commentary team and tasked with brandishing the on-court microphone to ask the victorious protagonists to share their innermost secrets with the watching millions.

However the twice champion’s own focus has been at a couple of infinitely smaller gatherings in his native Florida and centered on a player who can only still dream of the big stage at Melbourne Park.

Courier’s Australian labors are just gravy, in his parlance. His serious job is restoring the United States’ Davis Cup team to a position of some eminence while the individual fortunes of its’ players was less than glorious in the year’s initial Grand Slam event.

Yet while Andy Murray and the rest of players set to contest this weekend’s USA v Great Britain World Group tie in San Diego wing their way across the Pacific to California, Kyle Edmund, aged 19 and ranked the world’s 372nd player, has been making a habit of winning on American soil.

Last week Britain’s captain Leon Smith did what a lot of British tennis watchers have been urging him to do for some time and named Edmund as a playing member of the team for the first time. Smith’s reasoning was that Edmund, long identified by the likes of Murray, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski as the youngster most likely to achieve, was already a more accomplished performer on the clay being laid for the tie at the San Diego’s Petco Park, and rather more committed to the cause than Daniel Evans who chose to return home to Birmingham rather than contest a second tier Challenger event in Hawaii.

Edmund is currently playing a step down from that on the Futures circuit but promptly won the title in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Sunrise and then moved on the eight miles to where he followed up with another title in Plantation. “I don’t know that much about Kyle but I’ve made sure our team’s coach Jay Berger has been in Florida these past couple of weeks, doing some scouting,” said Courier who watched his two singles players John Isner and Sam Querrey both lose early in Melbourne and even saw the top seeded doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan beaten in the third round.

“What we do know is that Edmund has actually been playing on clay, green rather than the red stuff we have had laid in San Diego. So that will give him an advantage over all the other players. I’ve seen him hit a few balls here and there, but not too much. However I’ve heard guys whose opinion I respect say good things about the youngster. We will most certainly not underestimate his threat.”

Courier is also mindful that Murray got sufficient court time under his belt by reaching the quarterfinals to be match honed for the tie, being billed as a rematch of the first Davis Cup tie, which took place at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston back in 1900.

Murray hasn’t played on clay since withdrawing from last May’s Masters 1000 series event in Rome after suffering a worsening of the back problems that eventually forced him to undergo surgery at the end of September. The Scot remains far from enamored with the surface but is expected to play three rubbers in as many days, filling Britain’s leading singles spot as well as partnering Colin Fleming on the doubles court.

“Nothing I have seen here in Melbourne has changed my mind about Andy,” said Courier. “He is one of the world’s very best tennis players and he’s a guy that’s going to be a threat no matter what he brings to the court. If he’s healthy, and he certainly seemed to be in his four matches here at the Australian Open, we will have our work cut out to beat him.

“Even if he is carrying a little bit of an injury or is a bit stiff from the long flight, he’s still going to have Great Britain written across his back on his match shirt. Consequently that makes somebody like Andy Murray a very dangerous player.”

Topics: 10sballs, Andy Murray, Australian Open, Bob Bryan, Daniel Evans, Davis Cup, Jim Courier, John Isner, Melbourne, Mike Bryan, Sam Querrey, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News