Last year, the US lost in the first round to Serbia at Serbia. Losers of the first round in Davis Cup must qualify to stay in the World group, so later in the year, US had to go down to Colombia to play on clay. Mardy Fish pulled the rare triple, winning both his singles then winning doubles in Patrick McEnroe’s last tie as Davis Cup captain.
US opened its first round this year with another trip to South America, this time to Chile. The Chileans were without the services of Fernando Gonzalez who has been mostly injured since about the French Open of last year. Instead, they had to rely on Paul Capdeville and Nicolas Massu, neither of whom are particularly young or highly ranked. Massu once won the gold medal in the Olympics in a surprise (along with Gonzalez) in a star performance for Chile.
Andy Roddick skipped Davis Cup last year citing the need to stay healthy and not play on differing surfaces. However, that may have been politics as Jim Courier became captain and Roddick said he was available once again. Sam Querrey had been bothered by a shoulder injury so he was not picked. Meanwhile, John Isner was named as the other singles player.
Roddick won his opening match against Nicolas Massu, but Capdeville came back in 5 marathon sets to beat John Isner. Isner had been up 2 sets to love, but lost in 5. The Bryan brothers then did their part and won the doubles, leaving Roddick to play Capdeville.
Roddick’s strategy was simple. He felt he was in superior shape to Capdeville, and wanted to play long grinding points and work on Capdeville’s fitness. Capdeville won the second set in a tiebreak, but Roddick took the next two sets and did a weird Chuck Norris move to celebrate the win. This leaves the fifth rubber as meaningless. The US may choose to sub in a lower-ranked player to finish the match.
Serbia beat India, despite Devvarman’s upset of Tipsarevic on the first day. Without Bhupathi and Paes, India’s slim chances were even slimmer, and Serbia closed out doubles and the reverse singles to a 4-1 lead.
Sweden somehow managed to win a tie over Russia. Sweden’s singles team is nearly as bad as Britain’s. However, they have a capable doubles team that is highly ranked. They managed to have a player in Joachim Johansson, ranked below 700, beat the comparatively high-ranked Gabashvili. Such is the magic of Davis Cup where a comparative nobody can upset a player ranked 600 spots ahead.
Soderling did his job by beating Andreev. Apparently, Davydenko was not playing this Davis Cup tie.
Kazakhstan seems on the verge of an upset over the Czech Republic. Normally, the Czechs would be too tough if Radek Stepanek was playing. However, Stepanek had the flu and they had to rely on Jan Hajek to play singles. And Berdych was iffy, not entirely 100%. Golubev beat Hajek in 5 sets, but Berdych won his match over Kukushkin in singles and then teamed up with Dlouhy (who often plays doubles with Leander Paes) to win the doubles.
One would have expected Berdych to win the reverse singles over Golubev, but perhaps fatigue caught up with Berdych or Golubev was inspired. Golubev won in 4 sets, thus leading Hajek and Kukushkin to play the fifth match, with Kukushkin up one set to love.
Argentina took a 4-0 lead against Romania. Romania’s top player is Victor Hanescu. Argentina was (again) playing without Juan Martin del Potro. Instead, they went with Davis Cup hero, David Nalbandian, as well as Juan Monaco and Eduado Schwank, all very capable players. Nalbandian won over unheralded Ungar in the first match, but was in great pain. He only chose to play the entire match because it was Davis Cup. It turned out it didn’t matter so much. Argentina won the other singles, and the doubles to clinch the tie.
Spain won their tie against Belgium easily. Nadal beat Bemelmans in straight sets, his first match since losing to Ferrer in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. Verdasco also beat Malisse easily. He teamed with Lopez to take the doubles. Nadal, who wanted the match practice, played the meaningless reverse singles and won over Olivier Rochus.
Germany won its tie over Croatia. Cilic needed 5 sets to beat Mayer on the first day. Kohlschreiber beat Dodig in 5 sets to tie it up for Germany. Kaz and Petzschner beat Dodig and Karlovic in 5 sets in doubles. Karlovic broke Roddick’s record for fastest serve in this match with a 156 mph serve. Roddick’s record was 155 mph which was also in a Davis Cup tie, back in 2004 against Belarus.
Cilic beat Kohlschreiber in straight sets to tie it once again. Finally, Petzschner beat Karlovic in straight sets to win the fifth match.
France was without its top players. Tsonga, Monfils and Gasquet were all unavailable. However, the French team is so deep, they can field 3 teams if they had to. Even with a 2-0 lead on the first day with Chardy upsetting Melzer in his first win of the year and with Simon beating Koubek easily, the Austrians stormed back taking the doubles with Knowle and Melzer beating Llodra and Benneteau with a retirement in the fourth set. Melzer then beat Simon in 5 sets in the fourth match. This leaves unheralded Stefan Koubek and Jeremy Chardy to determine the winner.
The US will take on Spain next and will be a decided underdog. It is being hosted in the US. The likelihood is the US will pick the fastest surface they can find and hope that even with Nadal, the speed will be too much.