Andy Roddick had skipped some Davis Cup last year.  Perhaps there was some antagonism with Patrick McEnroe that wasn’t made public.  In any case, Jim Courier was made captain, and Roddick came back to the fold.  With Roddick and Fish both being in the top ten and both willing to play Davis Cup, it was a no-brainer for Courier to pick them.  Indeed, for this reason, John Isner, who lost in the second round at Wimbledon for the second year in a row decided to play in Newport whose field is generally weak, either because the top pros are resting or they are playing Davis Cup.

The Spanish team, which has won the Davis Cup several times in the past few years, was without Rafael Nadal who wanted to use the time to recover, especially the heel injury that didn’t exactly impede Nadal.  However, Spain, like France, has so much depth on their team.  They have a little over a dozen players in the top 100.  Even without Nadal, Spain can field a very strong team.  Indeed, without Nadal, they could field 2 or 3 good teams.

Spain went with David Ferrer then picked Feliciano Lopez.  Although Verdasco’s rank is a bit higher, he hasn’t played that well in about a year.  Lopez has played better more recently including pushing Federer in 3 tiebreak sets, beat Andy Roddick for the first time in Wimbledon, reaching the quarters for the third time.  He had pushed Djokovic several times, and reached the finals of Belgrade.  This was a good year for Lopez, and captain Albert Costa rewarded him with a spot.

In the opening round, Mardy Fish played Feliciano Lopez.  This was a pretty close match throughout, with Lopez taking the opening set, Fish taking the second, Lopez taking the third, Fish taking the fourth, and the fifth going deep.  Fish had to save match points late in the fifth.  Lopez had to save break points.  However, it was Lopez that eventually won, and gave Costa relief.

Ferrer played next.  This was always going to be tough for Roddick.  The two have played close, but Ferrer is a tough customer, and Roddick doesn’t have great weapons to use.  Roddick sliced a lot to the Ferrer backhand and it seemed to work.  Roddick had a break in the first set, but lost it.  Then, it seemed like he had won in the first set tiebreak, but Costa asked Ferrer to get it reviewed and the set point was reversed.  Despite many opportunities to close out the set, Roddick eventually lost the first set.

In the second set, Roddick (I believe) was up early, but Ferrer again came back.  By the third set, Ferrer took control, and US was down in a 2-0 hole.

This meant US, playing in Andy Roddick’s backyard in Austin (indoors, rather than in the intense heat), was down 2-0 hole.  There was a chance to get out of it.  First, the Bryan brothers are the number 1 doubles team in the world.  With Lopez having played a five setter and expected to play the reverse singles, Costa subbed in Marcel Granollers with Verdasco, perhaps thinking that the doubles would be a loss, and to prepare for the reverse singles.

The Bryans lost the first set for the first time, in a tiebreak, but they came back with a break in each of the next three sets to take the doubles comfortably.

On Sunday, the reverse singles gives the US some hope.  Fish has played Ferrer reasonably well in the past, even though a great majority of their head-to-head encounters was from a few years ago.  However, Fish did win their most recent encounter in Miami which was on hard courts (slower than this indoors surface).  And, despite Lopez beating Roddick at Wimbledon, Roddick still has a big head-to-head lead.  Obviously, they can’t have a misstep and the Fish-Ferrer match is critical.

But stranger things have happened in the crucible that is Davis Cup.