Tennis Chatter

I have a heart for underdogs. Despite that, I did not think Czech Tomas Berdych was much of one in his thrilling encounter against USA’s Andy Roddick in Ostrava. The important thing for me was that the young man fought courageously for his country despite the leg cramps. Credit also goes to the heroics of Roddick who gave the USA a 3-1 definitive lead in their World Group tie with the Czech Republic by beating Berdych 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-6(7).

Berdych on Friday beat James Blake while Roddick crushed Ivo Minar in their opening singles matches. Bob and Mike Bryan won their doubles match to give team USA a 2-1 lead Saturday. The United States will next face Spain, who overpowered Switzerland, in a home quarterfinals this April.

It has been a decade since the United States won a Davis Cup match on clay. Although the United States leads in the number Davis Cup wins (31), the country sorely missed another victory since their 1995 feat.

Roddick seems to take this as his mission. He has always been considered the leader of the American team. The world no. 4 is now on his seventh year as a Davis Cup player.

The match was a spectacle showing two known big servers in an expected partisan crowd. Roddick is one player who thrives in team effort. The situation seemed only to fire the American. Berdych clinched the first set but started to sow errors in the second set. I notice that this is beginning to be his pattern of play. The good news is he is young, rising, and hopefully learning with experience.

Roddick the veteran used his edge against the fellow big server securing breaks in the third set and wearing down his opponent with long rallies from the back of the court to keep the match in high gear. The fourth set saw no service breaks. Roddick made an emphatic statement of their professional difference when he took an early mini-break with a backhand return during the crucial tiebreak. Minutes later, it was mission accomplished for the United States Davis Cup team.

N.B. As of this writing, other winners in the first round were France, Germany, Argentina, and Sweden against Romania, Croatia, Austria, and Belarus, respectively.