Davis Cup Brings Out Best In Roddick, Blake
It struck me during the U.S. practice Thursday. And it was displayed in full during the pair of US Friday wins in Winston-Salem.
Andy Roddick and James Blake are in a different mode during Davis Cup. There is a calm about them, partly born, I believe, from the camaraderie they have engineered through five years as teammates.
Sign up for my RSS FeedThey move through this weekend with ease, joking with each other and their respective groups, engaging in pranks, celebrating wins and generally acting as masters of their domain.
And this is without arrogance, simply confidence.
No Federer or Nadal in this environment. Enthusiastic crowds that provide reinforcement. And family and friends packing the stands.
So when the tricky serves of Michael Llodra test Roddick, it is the Davis Cup belief that lifts Andy to a pair of tiebreak wins and a straight set win that could have been much tougher.
When Blake runs into a fiercely competitive Paul-Henri Mathieu, serving unconsciously in the first set, and fighting to erase his bad DCup memories, it is that belief that saves Blake.
Pushed to a fifth set, Blake lapsed into his bad body language mode after Mathieu broke for 2-0. Blake held and then, after a battle, broke back that brought the crowd, perhaps lapsing themselves near the end of a 7-hour day, roaring back to life.
Hearing that support, Blake raised his shoulders and his game, which he needed when Mathieu held 2 match points serving at 5-4. It was the moment when Mathieu’s ability to close would be tested. As well, Blake’s fight and resolve in 5-set battles, an issue reversed at last year’s US Open, would be confirmed.
Amidst growing noise, Blake survived the match points and launched one of his patented runs, winning 13 of 16 points to end Mathieu’s, and perhaps France’s, hopes.
It was Davis Cup in the United States, not sold out (did the scheduling of this on Masters weekend hurt attendance?) but nonetheless intensely supportive. And once again, Andy Roddick and James Blake seem to be at home wherever the U.S. DCup team calls home.
