Ted Robinson’s Matchpoints

The regard with which Andy Roddick and his US teammates hold Davis Cup was clear this weekend in Winston-Salem.

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How other great players around the world regard it was also seen in the attitude of Richard Gasquet.

Roddick clinched the tie; he is 10-0 in such matches, with a pulverizing straight set win over Paul-Henri Mathieu. The American closer, every bit as strong in that role as Mariano Rivera has been in baseball, never gave the French any hope.

His win pushed the US into the semi-finals, a road tie in Spain. And Andy addressed that tie in a post-match interview heard by the entire arena, “Even though Spain may put down a surface that is not to my strength, I guarantee one thing: I will be there.”

In contrast, we offer Gasquet. Wildly talented and equally erratic in mind, Gasquet came to North Carolina in a slump, and appeared disinterested in playing after experiencing the quick indoor court in practice.

After the Clement-Llodra doubles win Saturday, captain Guy Forget was seen in an animated conversation with Gasquet. A psychic was not needed to understand the purpose of this chat: to play or not to play, that was the question Gasquet had to answer.

Forget said he provided the answer on Friday, that Gasquet did not inspire any confidence from Forget that the player wanted the assignment.

But now France had a live Sunday with Mathieu, dispirited from his 5-set loss to James Blake, and a fatigued Llodra who would be challenged to play well on three consecutive days.

Gasquet practiced Saturday night and again Sunday morning. But it was decided that Mathieu would oppose Roddick and, if France produced an upset, that Gasquet would play the fifth match.

Roddick rendered the fifth match irrelevant. But the real point was the coercion needed to get Gasquet on the court.

It’s been a recurring theme in Gasquet’s life, and we won’t play amateur psychologist but we hope somehow a player with Gasquet’s skills can achieve some strength of mind. But Davis Cup should be an honor, not an obligation or burden.

For that, Roddick, as well as Blake, Mardy Fish and the Bryans, should be praised. They play anywhere, anytime and utter not a complaint.

Andy wrote another chapter in what is becoming his tennis legacy– his Davis Cup brilliance. Utterly confident, he smashed the No. 12 player in the world, winning his 29th Cup match, just one behind Andre Agassi for 2nd on the U.S. list.

Although they all know that clay and Rafael Nadal await them in September, this U.S. team will not need any persuasion to get them on the plane or in their clay-court shoes.

The court is fast. Lightning fast, more so than the speedy surface used by Team USA in Portland last December. 

And it impacted France, as designed. Richard Gasquet does not seem excited to play on the fast court and captain Guy Forget subbed Michael Llodra against Andy Roddick.

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Instead of the anticipated Roddick-James Blake/Gasquet-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga battles, we have Paul-Henri Mathieu-Llodra for France.

If both men bring their serves Friday, Roddick-Llodra will be decided in tiebreaks.

Tough news on Tsonga. If surgery is needed, he likely missed Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

This US team plays its 10th consecutive tie together, remarkable in that the next longest run by any US team is 3.

One of the practice players is David Martin, a lefty brought along to mimic the serve and volley style of Llodra.

Had a chance to talk with Martin after his practice with Roddick (by the way, Martin brought down the house with his Vanilla Ice impression at the official banquet).”

Martin is a 27-year-old Stanford grad who, with partner Scott Lipsky, has raised his doubles rank to a career-best 47.

He represents the earnest doubles player trying to make a living in the game they love through the one necessary means.

While the world’s best men were playing in Indian Wells and Miami for the last month, you know what David Martin has been doing?

Nothing.

The world’s 50th ranked doubles player couldn’t get in to those tournaments.

Why? The new ATP doubles policy that leads to more singles players entering, and losing quickly or withdrawing, from doubles.

Fewer spots means the cutoff is too high for Martin and Lipsky to qualify.

Play Challengers in the meantime? Possible, except the money is so low that the players would struggle to break even. And winning a Challenger would not improve their ranking. Martin said he might consider playing some singles, in the qualies, of Challengers just to get some matches.

This is the other side of the new ATP system: David Martin and his idle March. A premier double player unable to play in the 2 biggest tournaments in the US each spring.