United States trails Spain 0-2
Joe Ramirez
for the Americans pursuant to Iceberg's court-tailoring
specifications!), the United States bolted to an early 0-2 deficit
against a Rafa-free Spanish team. Lopez outlasted Fish 8-6 in the
fifth in an odd, patty-caking marathon that saw both players refusing
to hit any balls hard except their serves, although there certainly
were aces galore. Fish did well to push the match to five after going
down two sets to one, but he played ineptly to blow an early one-break
lead in the final set, and after that seemed underconfident and
underpowered for the duration. Lopez frequently appeared awkward and/
or tactically confused, but he played just well enough, and just long
enough, to force Fish to come up with goods he didn't quite have. On
the last of his several match points, Lopez scorched a topspin
backhand passing shot to break Fish -- surely the only time he's ended
a big match with such a stroke.
Roddick put in another workmanlike effort on his meandering path to
oblivion, being slowly and surely ground down by a David Ferrer who
even seemed to outserve Andy on big points. The first set was a taut,
evenly matched struggle that Roddick apparently had won when a Ferrer
shot was called out on set point in the tiebreak. But no -- Spanish
captain Albert Costa insists on a challenge, Ferrer obliges, and the
ball is in! Ferrer eventually captured the set. The second set was
close as well, only this time Roddick couldn't reach the tiebreak,
going down 7-5 thanks to a crunch-time fade. The third was basically a
formality: most of the crowd had gone to dinner, Courier's
contribution was looking glum on the bench, and Roddick double-faulted
on match point at love-40.
felangey
> to hit any balls hard except their serves<
I watched the latter stages of this one....but it was doing my nut in. I
don't really understand what they were trying to do....Mardy in particular.
Those conditions were perfect for his fast and loose game....but like you
mentioned, he refused to spank the ball.
I was very surprised to see Roddick going into his match as heavy favourite
against Ferret. His serving game hasn't been that great of late...let alone
the rest of his game...and he faced a great returner. Would have though he
could make it closer than it turned out to be though. Where now for the guy?
New coach....or lie-ins with the missus?
CloudsRest
Playing not to lose instead of playing to win?
Patrick Kehoe
Ya, Courier's proving to be a real sly mastermind type... FAIL...
:)
P
Sakari Lund
<josephm...@netzero.com> wrote:
> On the last of his several match points, Lopez scorched a topspin
>backhand passing shot to break Fish -- surely the only time he's ended
>a big match with such a stroke.
Well to be honest he has hardly ever ended a big match with any kind
of winning stroke...
Joe Ramirez
> On Fri, 8 Jul 2011 20:13:23 -0700 (PDT), Joe Ramirez
>
> > On the last of his several match points, Lopez scorched a topspin
> >backhand passing shot to break Fish -- surely the only time he's ended
> >a big match with such a stroke.
>
> Well to be honest he has hardly ever ended a big match with any kind
> of winning stroke...
LOL. The announcers mentioned that the match against Fish was only the
fourth live singles rubber of Lopez's Davis Cup career.
Joe Ramirez
In an interview, Courier said that he believed he had already
developed a good rapport with Roddick and the Bryans, but was still
learning how to communicate with Fish -- when to speak, when to remain
silent. But based on the glimpses provided during the TV coverage,
Courier seemed pretty passive and subdued throughout both matches --
neither a cheerleader nor a wise, calming influence.
TT
He's played a lot of doubles.
Also it appears you haven't watch Lopez play recently, he's hitting his
topspin backhand much better these days than couple years/a year ago.
felangey
>to remain
silent<
I think he learned to stay silent with Fish the whole time! :) He certainly
seemed afraid to speak to him....and the Fish body language was frigid
towards him....not thinking they get on too well.
Joe Ramirez
I've watched plenty of Lopez matches recently, and it's true that his
topspin backhand is much better than it used to be, i.e., now it
actually exists. That does not change the fact that he rarely hits
passing shot winners with it. Against Fish, the match point shot may
have been his only such winner during the entire match. Gimelstob
pointed out that against a down-the-line approach shot, Lopez goes
cross-court with his backhand virtually 100 percent of the time. It
appeared to be true; I don't remember any attempted passes back down
the line. The match point winner was cross-court, but it happened to
go in instead of flying wide.
Joe Ramirez
Cap'n Courier forgot to send the U.S. mandroids the memo explaining
that the purpose of installing a court fast enough to incite Spanish
protests was to facilitate ATTACKING TENNIS. Fishdick were trapped in
careful, navigate-around-the-court Eurotennis mode. "Dammit, Jim, I'm
a bricklayer, not a shotmaker!"
Scott
great post.
CloudsRest
Maybe they've forgotten how to play attacking tennis, and take the
"defense wins championships" cliche a little too far.
Joe Ramirez
impromptu team of Verdasco and Granollers proved surprisingly tough.
(Lopez was rested for tomorrow's reverse singles.) The Bryans lost the
first set of a Davis Cup for the first time in their careers. In the
end, however, the twins' experience and handy-dandy instapoints --
serve, poach, bam! -- proved too much. Verdasco crunched a few
forehands, but often looked uncomfortable at net. Granollers was
strong at improvisational volleying, and carried the Spanish team at
times, but was too soft on serve and off the ground to make much of a
dent in the Bryans' defense.
Katya
Shoot: it was fun having you in caustic mode, reaching for the lower
bounds of alluded profanity ( 'Fishdick' )
bob
fishdick. lol. fits well.
bob
Superdave
The US can always BOMB them and give them a lil SHOCK and AWE and slaughter
millions of innocent men, women and children like they always do elsewhere and
then preach that they stand up for the rule of law and human rights and that
aren't we so good while terrorists are cruel.
Yup.
Joe Ramirez
of course no one cares about the dead rubber. Fish's four-set loss to
Ferrer started out as a near-clone of Roddick's defeat, with big-point
paralysis the chief offender. Fish served for the first set at 5-4,
then promptly collapsed, choking away the set 5-7. In the second, Fish
held on until the tiebreak, when sloppiness and lack of initiative
again got the better of him. But Mardy played a much better third set
than Roddick, again and again staving off breaks until Ferrer finally
cracked while serving at 5-6. In the fourth, Fish battled gamely,
breaking back with Ferrer serving for the match at 5-4, but again
faltered in the tiebreak, almost inevitably, it seemed.
In many ways, Fish reminds me of a stereotypical WTA player: choke-
prone at the end of sets, liable to throw in a double-fault at the
worst possible time, and likely to produce fatal mistakes through too-
flat, carelessly managed groundies. The Fish forehand in particular is
a gushing fountain of unforced errors. Ferrer was solid, but certainly
not spectatular, and seemed to understand that he didn't have to
outhit Fish -- he merely had to stay in the sets until Fish's mental
weakness asserted itself.
bob
terrible loss for US against non-nadal spain. embarrassing. but i'm
not at all surprised.
bob
felangey
> of course no one cares about the dead rubber.<
Doesn't it now just remain 3-1 with the new rules that the dead rubber won't
be played if the previous winning match goes 4 sets?
Ocean
Really bad loss for the US.... no words....
only human
No USA team are just sore losers. and didn't want to risk going down
another match loss to spain. and they probably would have lost again.
still their should have been a 5th rubber for the crowd.
Superdave
>
>
>Really bad loss for the US.... no words....
SHOCK & AWE !
BOMB THE FUCKERS !
USA IS GOOD AT THAT !!!