In 1991, France met the US in the Davis Cup finals.  Yannick Noah, the 1983 French Open champion, was the Davis Cup captain.  Although he could have chosen to play, he opted to name Guy Forget and Henri Leconte to the team.  Leconte was a bit of a wildcard.  Hugely talented, Leconte could play up and down.  Forget was a bit more timid, but he was having one of his best years ever, and was in the top 10.

Although there is history at Roland Garros, a stadium that was not built for the French Open, but was built for Davis Cup, the French have traditionally not produced superlative clay court players.  To be fair, they knew how to play on the surface, but most of the players exude Gaellic flair and that often comes out more on faster surfaces.  Rather than host the Davis Cup on an indoor clay court, they opted for indoor carpet.

Andre Agassi would open up the tie with a four set victory over Guy Forget.  Henri Leconte would beat Sampras in straight sets.  In 1991, Sampras was not quite the player he would become.  Despite winning the US Open in 1990, Sampras had an off-year (for him) in 1991.  It probably didn’t hurt that both Forget and Leconte were lefties.

Leconte and Forget would team together and produce one of the few losses by Flach and Seguso, at the time, the leading American doubles team.  This left France with a 2-1 lead.

Forget would then be asked to beat Pete Sampras.  Forget took the first set in a tiebreak, while Sampras took the second set.  Noah exhorted his man to play more aggressive, not be too passive.  Forget didn’t quite do this, but he did secure the victory winning the next two sets.  In the stunning victory, the match between Agassi and Leconte was not played.

The US would not be without a victory for long.  In 1992, the US would beat Switzerland behind the team of Agassi and Courier.  McEnroe would have one last hurrah playing with Pete Sampras to win a 5-set match and come from 2 sets to none down.  Jakob Hlasek and Marc Rosset would show that, yes, there was such a thing as Swiss tennis, and it did precede Roger Federer.

The US would win again in 1995, in Moscow, on clay, with Sampras winning all 3 points, beating Chesnokov in 5 sets, winning the doubles with Todd Martin, then beating Kafelnikov in straight sets.

The following year, the French would take the Davis Cup with a team of Cedric Pioline and Arnaud Boetsch.  They would beat the Swedes in Sweden with Edberg and Thomas Enqvist playing singles.  Edberg would lose to Pioline.  Enqvist would beat Boetsch.  Guy Forget would have his one last hurrah playing doubles with Guillame Raoux and they would beat the Swedish team of Bjorkman and Kulti (not clear why Edberg didn’t play doubles too).  Enqvist would beat Pioline in 5 sets, leaving the match of Arnaud Boetsch against…Nicklas Kulti.  Looks like Edberg got hurt, and the Swedes had to go to their backup plan.  Kulti pushed Boetsch to a long fifth set, but ultimately lost.

The US would reach the finals in 1997 once again, but be blanked by Sweden.  Sampras retired in his match.  Chang lost both matches and Martin/Stark lost in doubles.

In 2001, France would win with an improbable team of Nicolas Escude and Sebastien Grosjean, good players yes, but great?  Not as much.  Australia would field Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt.  The two had four Slams between them, and they played on grass in Australia, and yet Escude won the first match over Hewitt in 5 sets.  Grosjean lost to Rafter.  Pioline and Santoro beat Rafter/Hewitt.  It may say something that Australia, once noted for a plethora of doubles talent, lacked a go to doubles team.  Australia would sub in hard-serving Wayne Arthurs, but Escude would win the fifth match and France would have another victory.  It goes to show that Davis Cup is unlike anything else.

In 2004, the US would lose to Spain which was playing Moya and Nadal, the two players from Majorca.  The US would win the doubles point, and the meaningless fifth match when Fish beat Tommy Robredo.

In 2007, the US would beat Russia in the US, with Roddick and Blake beating Tursunov and Youzhny in singles respectively, the Bryan brothers taking the doubles, and Andreev winning the sole point (over Bob Bryan).

Now we’re in 2010.  The French captain is Guy Forget, who served back in 1991 in singles and later in doubles.  They’ve been mostly playing in France the last two rounds.  In the previous round, Monfils beat Ferrer in 5 sets, then Llodra toppled Verdasco in 4 sets and the French team of Llodra and Benneteau took the doubles, eliminating the two time defending champs (Nadal was injured and declined to play).

Against Argentina, it was again, up to Nalbandian to try to win the Davis Cup, but he could not get past the athletic Gael Monfils who won in four sets.  Michael Llodra had beaten Juan Monaco earlier in four sets.  Monaco was unable to play the previous tie, but as it was, Argentina still made it to the semis.  Llodra then paired with French veteran, Arnaud Clement, and the duo beat Schwank and Zeballos in straight sets.  This was not necessarily a foregone conclusion.  Schwank and Zeballos just made it to the semis of the US Open doubles losing to Bopanna and Qureshi.

France is again heading to the finals, though their first time in eight years.

Currently, Serbia is in a bind.  Djokovic fell ill the first day and so it was up to Tipsarevic and Troicki to play singles.  Troicki lost to Stepanek in four sets.  Tipsarevic, however, won over Berdych.  Djokovic did his best Willis Reed (an injured basketball player that came out in the decisive 7th game of the NBA finals) and played doubles with Zimonjic, but Djokovic didn’t fare much better than he had with Nadal.

The big question is whether Djokovic should play, and then for whom?  If he were healthy, he would have a good chance of beating either Stepanek or Berdych.  Serbia has to win both points to get to the finals, otherwise the Czechs will get to the finals for a second year in a row.

Meanwhile, the US is in the World Group playoff to stay in the main draw of the Davis Cup (only 16 countries) against Colombia in Colombia.  They are playing in altitude on clay.

Mardy Fish won his match in five sets over Alejandro Falla, the man that nearly beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon.  Querrey succumbed to Giraldo in straight sets, with Querrey having difficulty dealing with the altitude.

The Bryan brothers did not join the Davis Cup team in Colombia.  Instead, captain Patrick McEnroe went with up-and-comer Ryan Harrison and John Isner.  However, at the last minute, he opted to play veteran, Mardy Fish, instead of Harrison.  The duo took the doubles in four sets, and the US is up 2-1.

One big question is whether to let Querrey continue to play.  Querrey has had some success on clay.  He reached the finals of Houston and won Belgrade, but the field in both tournaments were relatively weak.  Had Djokovic made the finals, then it would have been a different story, but he was ailing, so he basically lost without much effort.

Isner is not nearly as good on clay, but he does have a huge serve.  Querrey is the better groundstroker.  The decision will be interesting.