10 Reasons to Love the Davis Cup Weekend

Posted on April 9, 2004

By Richard Vach, Tennis-X.com Senior Writer

10. Mats Wilander's Mind Games
The Swedish former No. 1 and Davis Cup captain tried to plant a seed in American Mardy Fish before his match with Jonas Bjorkman: "If anything, I would say in my eyes Mardy Fish would be the guy who is the most green out there out of the singles players. I think it's possibly a little disadvantage to go out first and play the first match if you haven't played too many Davis Cup matches."

9. Career-Ending Performances
Britain's Arvind Parmar, who hadn't played a live match since losing the decider against Ecuador in 2000 after being up two sets to love, again blows a lead Friday in losing to Luxembourg in five sets, up 2-1 sets. Not a great debut for new Brit coach Jeremy "Master" Bates, benching Greg Rusedski.

8. Boca High vs. Sweden
Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish, who went to high school together, competing on the same Davis Cup team in singles. And they used to live together as schoolboys.

7. Audience Participation
Cow bells, air horns, spitting (Paraguay), throwing coins (Paraguay again), throwing chairs (Brazil), chanting, singing, it's like being at a bar.

6. Spain on Clay
Countries pray their draw doesn't include a trip to Spain on the red dirt, against former No. 1s and Roland Garros winners Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya. Imagine if you will a country that always played at home on grass, and their two singles players were Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, and you have an idea how hard it is to take out Spain at home.

5. The Bryan Brothers
Bob and Mike Bryan have stepped into the fold for the U.S. at the same time that many of the other all-countrymen doubles teams are retiring, paving the way for Davis Cup domination.

4. Pissed-Off Coaches
Belarus Davis Cup captain Sergei Teterin warned the Argentines to expect a hot reception in their Davis Cup match, setting up a mouthwatering tie: "The Argentines are known for using dirty tactics in their Davis Cup matches. Every time you play there they pour water on their claycourt day and night to make it very slow. So we'll pay them back this time: they prefer slow courts, so we'll try to make the court as fast as possible. If we could make it like an ice rink, I would be very happy indeed. They had better bring their ice skates with them." As of Friday night, Belarus led the tie two matches to none.

3. Cool Coaches
Between Mats Wilander (Sweden), Patrick McEnroe (U.S.), Miloslav Mecir (Slovakia), Guy Forget (France), and Kevin Curren (South Africa) among others, you have a group of experienced former players approaching their ties like a chess game.

2. South Africa's Grasscourt
With the Slovaks accustomed to their high-bouncing claycourts, the South Africans put them on a boggy grasscourt where the ball almost stops dead for their zonal tie. South African captain Kevin Curren is playing hardball: "Although the Slovakian team wanted to practice on the main court, we refused their request. They will only be given an opportunity to do so a day before the tie." Now that's good Davis Cup.

1. Vladimir Voltchkov
With Belarus hosting Argentina, in the lead-up Voltchkov says all the Argentines are on the juice: "When they say that out of the 120 best players in the world, 47 have (tested for) nandrolone in their blood, I think that all the Argentinean team is in that list," Voltchkov said. "Why am I so sure? Great traditions -- (Guillermo) Coria was caught, (Mariano) Puerta was caught twice, (Juan Ignacio) Chela was caught as well. So I have something against them. We are in the same business, and it is not nice when you are being cheated."

Richard Vach (rvach@comcast.net) is a senior writer for Tennis-X.com.