In 1991, the US reached the finals of Davis Cup, and they met France in the finals. At that time, Yannick Noah was captain of the Davis Cup team. The captain is almost always a former player, and Noah was more of a player-captain, but he chose not to play in the finals instead playing Henri Leconte and Guy Forget.
Henri Leconte was a little over the hill by 1991. He had reached the French Open finals in 1988 3 years earlier. Considered hugely talented, but also rather erratic as a player, Leconte was something of a risky choice, but Noah gambled that Leconte would play inspired tennis. The French chose to play the finals on an indoor court. Although clay may have favored France, the US were playing Andre Agassi, who had been in the French finals twice already. The US might have played Jim Courier in the finals, and the combination might have been tough. The French figured the faster surface might help Leconte by allowing his stylish play to flourish.
On the opening day, Agassi would beat Guy Forget, who was having a pretty good year, in four sets. Henri Leconte would surprise Pete Sampras and beat him in straight sets. In the doubles, the French paired Henri Leconte and Guy Forget, both left handers, against the veteran US doubles team of Flach and Seguso. Flach and Seguso were the successors to McEnroe and Fleming and were considered favorites to win the doubles. But the French duo in four sets.
On the third day, Guy Forget played Pete Sampras. In 1991, Sampras was hardly the player he became later on. In 1990, Sampras had a precocious start when he won the US Open as a 19 year old. But the media pressure on Sampras was a bit much, and he had something of a slump in 1991, although certainly not low enough to consider not playing him in Davis Cup. Meanwhile, Guy Forget would have one of his best years in 1991.
During this match, Yannick Noah, who had been known to attack the net frequently, asked Forget to do the same. He implored his man to attack more. Forget didn’t quite do it, but he did find himself victorious. The French crowd was raucous, singing, chanting, and the French found themselves as underdog winners of the Davis Cup that year.
At the time, Michael Llodra was maybe 10 years old, and recalled this match, and told himself, one day, maybe he’d experience the same. Llodra is one of those players that focuses on doubles, but still plays a fair bit of singles. The Woodies (Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge) said doubles had changed since they played. These days, top doubles teams focus all their energy on doubles, rarely playing doubles, while both Woodforde and Woodbridge actively played singles. Llodra, who is 30 years old, is ranked about 30 in the world, bunched together with Simon and Benneteau in the worked rankings.
He recently won a grass event in Eastbourne, just before Wimbledon, and befuddled Andy Roddick at Wimbledon before Roddick figured out that he needed to take the net away from Llodra. Guy Forget took a chance and let Llodra played singles.
Llodra had played Davis Cup before, but he had rarely played singles, playing four times, and only winning once. He had primarily played doubles. Indeed, he’s played doubles for around a decade. He teamed up with Fabrice Santoro early on, then Arnaud Clement. He’s won 18 doubles titles including some Slams.
On paper, Llodra and Benneteau would be highly favored over Verdasco and Lopez although Verdasco and Lopez have been playing doubles for some time. As many players as Spain has in singles, they haven’t developed players that play a lot of doubles, while France has generally had players that have played a fair bit of doubles.
And it seemed that Llodra and Benneteau would win easily. They took the first two sets 6-1, 6-2, and they were up a break in the third. In the latter parts of the third set, the Spaniards broke for the first time and evened the match. Each team then held serve into the tiebreak which the Spanish team won. What had seemed like a blowout now was getting interesting.
In the fourth set, the two teams again played even. Spain had been down 0-40 in one game, but came back to win that game. In the tiebreak, the teams were mostly holding serve, until Fernando Verdasco double-faulted, giving the mini-break to France. They held the next point, but then France won their two points to hold 3 match points. Spain then took the next two points, but France still had one more. Benneteau served, the Spaniards returned, and Llodra put away the volley to take the fourth set.
There have been complaints that Davis Cup is not TV friendly. There are some, primarily Americans, who favor Davis Cup be played in one setting much like the World Cup. They figure that maybe two weeks of play and the entire event would be over. Perhaps, in such a scenario, the best players in the world would play instead of skip it. As it’s played now, Davis Cup is almost always scheduled the week after a Slam, thus the first round is played the week after the Australian Open, the second is played the week after Wimbledon, the semifinals played the week after the US Open, and the finals played the week after the ATP World Tour Finals.
Top players often go deep in Slams and having expended two weeks of effort plus lead-up training and tournaments, many feel they are playing less than optimal tennis heading into Davis Cup, which has been known to create upsets. Indeed, Tsonga, who seemed injured during his loss to Andy Murray, and Rafael Nadal, who said he needed knee treatment, both begged out of Davis Cup play.
But the one big advantage of Davis Cup play is the atmosphere of playing in a partisan crown. The French, like many European countries, are great at chanting. They seem to have a leader that sets up the chants for the crowds, which range from singing popular tunes, to military chants, to horn blowing, to things that perhaps only a Frenchman would understand. And they do this in 30 second bursts. They’ll chant until their team is just about to serve, and then silence.
Consider a player like Michael Llodra, the last of a dying breed of players that plays serve and volley, and doubles, at the age of 30, being asked to beat juggernaut Spain. Llodra played inspired tennis to beat Verdasco who was frequently shrugging his shoulders wondering “what’s going on”, and then he was asked to play doubles (which is what he normally does) to wrap up the tie. Although France has bigger names in Monfils and Tsonga, it is Llodra, that ends up being the hero for France winning 2 of the 3 points they needed.
And France hadn’t beaten Spain since 1923. Spain beat France in 1963, 1970, 1971, 1972, and 2004. Add to that Spain was two time defending Davis Cup champs.
As Michael Llodra said when he beat Verdasco, these things happen in Davis Cup, and the thrill he’s enjoying now is something he’ll cherish the rest of his life.
And what about Guy Forget (pronounced Ghee FOR-Zhay)? What did the man who went through the same thing 20 years ago and now the captain of the winning team think? He said, after their win, he wanted to get something to eat and head to sleep. He was exhausted. He then said the other guys, they were still young, so they might party. And who could blame them?