USA-3, Switzerland-0 after Bryan/Fish beat Federer/Wawrinka 122-99!

Written by: Tennischiro on 11th February 2012

USA-3, Switzerland-0 after Bryan/Fish beat Federer/Wawrinka 122-99!

epa03101267 US Davis Cup tennis player Mardy Fish (R) celebrates with teamate Mike Bryan (L) after they won against Swiss Davis Cup tennis player Stanislas Wawrinka and Roger Federer during the Davis Cup World Group first round double match between Switzerland and the US in the Forum Arena in Fribourg, Switzerland, 11 February 2012. EPA/LAURENT GILLIERON |

Note: If you go to the following url, you can see a complete listing of Davis Cup statistics and scorecards for all the “rubbers” in the World Group Ties in 2012:

http://www.daviscup.com/en/scorecards/scorecards-2012.aspx

What a tremendous victory for the US Davis Cup team! Some questioned Captain Courier’s wisdom in putting Mardy Fish back on the court in the doubles after pulling off a compelling 9-7 in the fifth, 5-hour, comeback win against Stan Wawrinka yesterday in Fribourg. The question was whether or not Jim should rest his ace for a day to be fresh for his singles match in one more day against Roger Federer. Sure, Isner had an edge according to the rankings against Wawrinka (17 vs 28), but the pressure of playing a live 5th rubber on the opponent’s homecourt … well, there was really no telling the outcome of that. Fish could pick up an edge on Federer with the rest by letting Harrison play the doubles with Mike Bryan and he would have two fresh singles players to go for the last point on Sunday against their weary Swiss opponents.

In retrospect, it’s easy to agree with Courier now; they won. But I think it was a really smart play. The Olympic champions would almost certainly have taken Bryan/Harrison. Of course, Mike would be the best doubles player on the court and Harrison has a fine serve, but he is nowhere near the doubles player Mardy Fish is. I don’t consider it an option to have played Isner in the doubles because, while he has a good doubles record, he would be hard pressed to play three tough days in a row and be his best against Wawrinka on red clay in 5 sets; the US figured to win that match on paper (worthless paper, of course) and Courier couldn’t jeopardize that advantage. On the other hand, as much as Fish would have loved to play a live 4th rubber singles match against Federer with a chance to clinch the team victory, …even if you consider Fish has had success against Federer before and Federer would perhaps (doubtful) have still been reeling somewhat from the beating handed him yesterday by Isner, … you had to think Bryan/Fish had a better chance against Federer/Wawrinka than Fish had against Federer. In fact, given the possible circumstances had the Swiss won the doubles, I think you would have figured Federer for a huge favorite.

Well, as the scene began to unfold in the first game, Courier’s naysayers were thinking they were right and the Captain was wrong. Fish struggled with his serve making just 3 of 8 first serves and double faulted 3 times. But he still hadn’t faced a break point. It looked like he was feeling the effects of the long singles match. While he settled down and made 6 of his next 8 first serves, it was too much of an edge to give Federer/Wawrinka and they finally broke him on their third chance of the first game. This was not the start Courier, Fish and Bryan were looking for. Bryan and Fish dropped just 5 more points on serve the rest of the way through the first set, but the Swiss never yielded a break point. First set to the Swiss!

As the match settled into a normal doubles rhythm of service holds, it appeared this could be a long battle. But Wawrinka blinked at 2-3 and gave up a break on his second double fault of the game. Fish lost only one point on serve in the second set and Bryan lost just two including a double fault. It was only one break, but the Americans had won 11 more points than their opponents. It was a strong comeback after the weak start. One set apiece!

In reality, the match was the first game, … and the rest. After the first game, Fish never double faulted again. The USA never faced a single break point. And they converted 4 of the 7 break points they got from the Swiss, including going 3 for 3 in the 2nd and 3rd sets. After losing the first set by one break, 6 games to 4 and 35 points to 33, Mardy and Mike won 18 of the next 27 games and 89 of the next 153 points. That’s a total beatdown.

It was a great victory for the USA and all its members. Most considered them to be an underdog, especially on red clay indoors. John Isner will point proudly to his victory over Federer as the best, most important match of his career (we hope he will move on to have even better results at the Slams with the new confidence this should give him), but Mardy Fish set the tone coming back from 2 sets to 1 down on foreign soil on a clay court. Check the statistics and the scorecard carefully and you’ll see the adversity he had to overcome to secure that victory. Mike Bryan provided the solid doubles play that is almost taken for granted, never allowing even a break point on his serve in four sets against the Olympic champions. And Jim Courier held this team together, kept them calm and focused on their mission and definitely made the right call in having Fish play the doubles.

Next for US Davis Cup team is Canada or France, just beginning their doubles match in a couple of hours with that tie deadlocked at 1-1, but with the French looming as almost certain winners. But you never know… And that tie will take place after the Miami Masters 1000 event at the end of March.

And for those of you who don’t want to watch dead rubbers tomorrow, there are still live matches to be played between Austria and Russia, Serbia and Sweden, Japan and Croatia (8PM Pacific Saturday night) as well as Canada/France. You can get those matches for just $5 on DavisCup.TV.($5 gets you 24 hours so you might be able to get today’s Canada/France doubles, tonight’s Japan/Croatia matches and tomorrow morning’s remaining singles matches. Quite a deal.) The quality of the streaming video is excellent. The commentators are knowledgeable and restrained. And there don’t seem to be any commercials at all! Really nice!

10sChiro

Topics: John Isner, Mardy Fish, Mike Bryan, Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka