OK so the first slam of the season is out of the way with Stan Wawrinka and Li Na emerging victorious at the Australian Open, but the rest of the season lies ahead and this weekend we had the Davis cup ties. And the main focus of this post will be on Great Britain's world group tie against the USA, which promised to a real stern test for the GB team, especially as the Americans have big John Isner and Sam Querrey on their side, as well as the greatest doubles partnership in the history of the sport with the Bryan brothers. So let's have a look at the busy and dramatic weekend team GB had with the old US of A.
Right starting with day 1, it was revealed that John Isner had been struggling with an ankle injury so he was forced to withdraw from the tie, and his place they put Donald Young. Young however had an uphill battle ahead of him as in his first tie he came up against Britain's No.1 player and the World No.6, Andy Murray. And in this match Andy rarely put a foot wrong and despite the Americans having deliberately chosen clay as their surface of choice (as its Andy's weakest surface) this did nothing to phase Andy throughout the match as he moved great and struck the ball with effortless precision. And it wasn't long before Donald Young found himself facing a two set deficit as Andy raced into the lead, and despite a more spirited fight from Young in the 3rd, it was too little too late as Andy closed out the match and won the first rubber for GB with an emphatic 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 victory. This match really saw Andy in great form and what's more important is in the match his back appeared to be holding up exceptionally well and he showed virtually no signs of pain, and given it was a fast clay court (which was actually built on a baseball ground) Andy did a terrific job overall.
In the second rubber on Day 1, James Ward, the British No.2 took on the American No.1 (well No.2 in John Isner's absence) Sam Querrey. This was a match that Ward was not expected to win given the gulf in rankings between the two. However in Davis cup rankings can go out the window and in the end its all about playing for your country. But at the start of the match, the rankings seemed to dictate the possible outcome, as Wardy made a nervous start and went down a double break, which saw Querrey take the first with ease. In the 2nd however, Ward started to find his feet and play went by serve and into a tiebreak, which Ward upset Querrey and the odds by winning. At a set all however Ward felt the pressure again as he failed to hold in the 3rd and Querrey took the two sets to one lead, which saw him draw closer to victory. In the 4th set, Querrey looked even closer to the finish line as the American went a break up early on, but then Wardy did the unthinkable and broke back and went on to break Qurrey's increasingly fragile serve to level the match at two sets all. And in the 5th set, Ward's game really caught fire as he went right through Querrey, who had no answer at all for the inspired Brit, who pulled off a big upset by winning the match to give GB a real cushion lead of 2-0 with a dramatic 1-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win.
This really was a tremendous effort form James Ward, who once again proved in Davis cup that when you play for your country, it can really bring out the best in you as a player. And this has certainly proved to be the case for James Ward, who's win played a key part in GB's potential victory over the USA in their first world group tie. And with the two rubber cushion (and I don't mean a cushion made out of rubber!) then it saw an opportunity for Andy to close out the tie by playing Querrey on the Sunday.
So moving onto day 2 we had the doubles rubber, which was always going to be an uphill struggle for GB to win as they were up against the Bryan Brothers, Bob and Mike, the most successful doubles players in the history of the men's game with 15 major titles to their name. So for the Brits, Colin Fleming and Dominic Inglot, it was going to be a tough ask to get past them. And right enough it was as Inglot, who made his debut in the doubles got off to a nervy start as the Byrans got a break straight away and later sped to a double break to grab the first set. In the 2nd set it was the same again as the Brits went a break down and the Bryans raced into a two set lead. in teh 3rd however, the Brits started to play better as Fleming and Inglot broke the Americans and took the 3rd set to keep their hopes alive. But it was short lived in the end as the Bryans confidently raced to victory in the 4th set with a double break to guarantee America's hopes of keeping the tie alive with a four set victory in 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 and cut the deficit to 2-1. So it was always going to be a big ask for Fleming and Inglot to try and win against the Bryans, but with 2-0 lead, it was a rubber they could afford to lose and it now would all hinge on the third day.
Which brings me onto the 3rd day and the key remaining singles rubber, which was between Andy Murray and Sam Querrey, which would either see GB win the tie to go 3-1, or see the US even the scores to go 2-2. And the match itself proved to be quite a tight and highly entertaining affair as Querrey came out firing, despite going a break down in the opening set, he fought back to level at 5-5 and play went to a tiebreak. The breaker was a tense affair with Andy going an early break down, but he soon broke back and managed to break Querrey instead to grab the first set. In the 2nd set play went by serve and this time it was Querrey who was victorious in the tiebreak as he attacked a couple of Andy's slow second serves to nab the second set, levelling the match. In the 3rd set however, the cracks started to show in Querrey's game as he started to tire against a determined Andy Murray who broke the American yet again to take a two sets to one lead. And in the 4th set, Andy made his move as he attacked Querry's serve, which eventually broke down and Andy took the break with it. However the match wasn't without its drama in closing it out, as Andy desperately tried to break Querry at 5-2 in order to save him serving it out, but Querrey managed to hold on as he forced Andy to close out the match. And in the last game Andy had a bit of a test, although not as titanic as his final game at Wimbledon, but he went 15-40 down on his serve, but dug deep to finally close out the match and win the tie for Great Britain after a hard fought 7-6, 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 victory and a 3-1 result for the tie.
Well there was no doubt that this rubber was the highlight of the tie as both men put on a great display for the thrilled crowd, who finally had something to get their teeth into after a letdown from day 1. And Querrey for two sets threw everything he had at Andy, but in the end once Andy moved two sets to one up, the match was firmly in his control. But Querrey deserves a great deal of credit for his spirited battle against Andy, but in the end Andy proved to be the better player as he outclassed the American with some incredible tennis throughout. And again what's reassuring about this match was how well Andy moved during it, and again his back appeared to be no problem at all for him as Andy was pushed from pillar to post around the court by Querrey. And as it was his second match on clay, he really showed he was capable of playing at a really high level on what is actually his weakest surface. And if Andy continues to play like this on the red dirt then he is sure to be a big threat to the other players come the beginning of the clay court season in April.
And Andy's next tournament will be the Mexican open, which up until this year was actually played on red clay, but this year the event will make its transition to hard court. This event was actually won by Rafa last year but he has chosen not to compete this year and with Rafa still recovering from his back injury in Melbourne, it remains to be seen what tournaments he will compete in. So this will give Andy a bit more preparation just before the beginning of the first American hard court swing where the first two 1000 Masters series title of the season await at in Indian Wells and Miami. But given his ranking has slipped down to No.6 in the world, going into the hard court swing in America, he has a fair few points to defend as he reached the quarter finals of Indian Wells last year and he won the title in Miami also, so he can't afford to drop too many points or else he will be in danger of dropping out of the top ten. But hopefully Andy will be able to do his best to ensure he can defend those points as best he can and already in the beginning of 2014, his tennis is looking very encouraging with hopefully more great things ahead for him.
So that's it for team GB who deserve a big congrats for having won their first world group tie and to reach the quarter finals of the Davis cup, where they will next play Italy and with Andy in their corner, they are sure to be the fair favourites to win there, even if it will be an away game, as it will be in Italy. And its a huge credit to both Andy Murray and James Ward who played their parts in winning the tie for their team, as well as their team captain, Leon Smith, who has done a superb job with the team, as they have now won 8 out of 9 ties since he has taken over the captaincy. And I think now team GB have a good chance to reach the semi finals and should they beat Italy then they may well face Switzerland in the semis and we all know who is playing on that team! And what a match up that could be in prospect, but for victory over Federer or Wawrinka, Andy will definitely need to play for the team, but we can leave that for another day.
Which quickly leads to sum up the other results, as Switzerland secured victory over Serbia (who were without Djokovic or Tipsarevic) as they won 3-2, but having already secured 3-0 by the Saturday, Serbia won the remaining dead rubbers. Germany also triumphed over Spain as they took an emphatic 4-1 victory over them, however they were also without their best players, Rafa or Ferrer. The Czeck Republic, the defending champs had a tough time however against the Netherlands, but they came through 3-2 to keep ahold of their title. France on the other hand had no trouble in getting past Australia as they drubbed them emphatically with a very convincing 5-0 result. And Japan also sealed their victory over Canadia with a similarly very convincing victory in 4-1. Kazhakstan secured their victory over Belgium with a tight 3-2 result. And lastly Italy took out Argentina to set up their meeting with Great Britain, and they also won 3-1.
And that's it for my look at the Davis cup first round of 2014, with the quarter finals coming up in April, probably around Easter time, so that will be another exciting weekend of tennis to look forward to.
So that's it for now, more to follow soon, which will probably be on the next big tournament for the ladies and men, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, which is often considered the "fifth slam". So until then bye for now. :-)
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