This weekend both the U.S. and Spain advanced out of the first round of the Davis Cup into a second-round meeting. The U.S. will host Spain, and U.S. captain Jim Courier and the USTA have only one choice for the quarterfinal meeting. Grass. REAL grass.
ADHEREL
Not the fake clay-painted-green that they now use at Wimbledon. I’m talking the grass that players like Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic won titles on. ‘One and done’ grass. As in, one serve, now on to the next point. REAL grass, not like Wimbledon where they’ve seeded it so you now get a uniform bounce.
I’m talking more like the grass they still use at the ATP Newport event. Where the ball doesn’t as much bounce as it skips and slides. Where service returns don’t come up. Where it is still an ADVANTAGE to serve and volley.
If the U.S. picks any other surface than REAL grass, then that is an automatic two points for Spain, because Andy Roddick and John Isner are unlikely to get wins over Nadal on anything other than a surface where they can just serve him off the court. REAL grass could also nullify David Ferrer or Fernando Verdasco or whoever is the Spanish No. 2.
On REAL grass I could see the U.S. sweeping Spain: Roddick beating Nadal, Isner beating Verdasco, and the Bryan brothers beating the pretty-boy team of Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez.
This match will be right after Wimbledon, so hopefully Courier and the USTA don’t screw up and choose a fast hard court or indoor surface. Wherever this match is held, if the U.S. can dial back the clock to 1980 and hire someone who did groundskeeping work at Wimbledon 30 years ago, a slick old-school grasscourt will see the U.S. beating Spain.
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