Across The Net: Clay Pigeons
Posted by Dan Martin on 09.25.2006
What did the U.S. Davis Cup team get stuck in this weekend? A slow surface…
The United States fell in both Ryder Cup and Davis Cup this weekend. Russia defeated the U.S. 3-2 after losing a meaningless fifth match. Australia fell 5-0 to Argentina. Both Russia and Argentina had home court advantage which meant they got to pick the surface. Clay proved to be the undoing of the Aussie and U.S. teams.
The Dynamics of Clay
Clay slows the ball down and causes the ball to bounce higher. Hence, clay undermines purely power tennis players as well as serve and volley players. Clay however benefits players who use heavy top spin because the ball will kick up off of the bounce. This is why Rafael Nadal's stamina, foot speed and heavy top spin make him nearly unbeatable on clay. He can run down shots that would be winners on other surfaces and also hit shots that bounce up high and wear down his opponent.
Red White and Diagnosis
In a show of jingo er patriotism, I will now focus solely on the U.S. team. Patrick McEnroe has managed to do what few U.S. Davis Cup Captains have done since the early 1990's: get the top ranked American players to commit to the team. Andy Roddick is ranked 6th in the world and James Blake is ranked 9th. The Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, are the top ranked doubles team in the world. So shouldn't this be the team to beat in Davis Cup? The U.S. should be favored to always pick up the doubles point and Roddick and Blake are each a threat to win two points in singles so reaching a total of three should be easy. It has not.
While the Bryan twins did their job taking the doubles point in straight sets, Roddick and Blake went 0-3 in matches that counted. Former world #1 and 2 time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin defeated Andy Rodick 6-4, 6-3, 7-6. World #24 Mikhail Youzhny defeated James Blake 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, 7-5. After two days the U.S. trailed 2-1. Andy Roddick then lost an epic five set encounter with World #22 Dmitry Tursunov 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 17-15! Yes, the final set lasted 32 games. The match went over the 4 ½ hour mark.
Roddick fighting back from two sets down and Blake defeating Safin in a meaningless fifth match give the U.S. some hope that clay courts will not be their undoing in Davis Cup, but a pattern is established. In 2003 the U.S. lost to France in the Davis Cup semifinals on clay. In 2004 the U.S. reached the Davis Cup final only to lose on clay at Spain. That Davis Cup tie (meaning meet not equal score) was the coming out party for an eighteen year old Rafael Nadal who beat world #2 Andy Roddick in four sets. Carlos Moya beat Roddick and Mardy Fish giving Spain three points. In 2005 the U.S. lost on a hard court in California to Croatia who boasts some of the best fast court players in the world in world #3 Ivan Ljubicic and world #10 Mario Ancic. Both Croatians stand over 6'4" and over powered Roddick, Agassi and the Bryan twins.
Home Cooking
As stated, the host country gets to select the surface for the tie. The surface I supposed to reflect the common surface used in that country. However, like a football team letting the grass grow before hosting a team with great speed or a baseball team signing players who can take advantages of quirks in their home stadium, Davis Cup teams tend to pick a surface that gives them the best chance of winning no matter how little that surface is used in the host country. My guess is that indoor clay courts are pretty rare in Russia even if Russia has many clay courts. However, the U.S. cannot cry crocodile tears over this home cooking given that the McEnroe's team played on a grass court in California when facing Chile's clay court specialists. Grass courts are not terribly abundant among U.S. weekend hackers and country clubs, but Roddick's serve on grass is nearly unreturnable. Worse still the U.S. used indoor red clay vs. Germany in 1992 in an attempt to blunt Boris Becker's power game. No one in the U.S. plays on indoor red clay…
What Needs to Be Done
So this begs the question can the U.S. win the Davis Cup with its current roster? On paper the answer is yes. However, both Roddick and Blake fall outside of the top 50 when it comes to clay court tennis. Chile, Argentina, Spain, Russia and France all have a great advantage if they are hosting the U.S. Smaller European and South American nations can use clay as an equalizer. The U.S. can counter by playing its home ties on grass or indoor surfaces, but Australia, Russia, France and Croatia all have good fast court players as well.
Agassi, Courier, Chang and Sampras combined to win the cup in 1990, 1992, and 1995. With great commitment they would have won more titles. Sampras, Agassi and Courier could all win on hard courts and indoor courts. Agassi, Courier and Chang could all win on clay courts. That generation could field a team that was tough to beat on any surface. This generation can field a team that gets close, but stumbles on clay.
In order to win on clay, Blake and Roddick must look at these matches as one on one tests and ignore the surface. Roddick reached the French Open 3rd round in his rookie year on tour and has yet to do that well since. Blake reached the French Open 3rd round this year. Neither is any threat to win a clay court tournament of consequence because they would have to win six or seven matches on their worst surface. They cannot even win three matches in a row in Paris. However, they are both capable of winning a single match on clay. If Blake and Roddick approach Davis Cup matches like prize fights instead of tournaments, they can pull upsets.
Blake and Roddick each have weapons that can work well on clay. Blake is exceptionally fast and fit. Clay court matches tend to reward defensive tennis and those willing to enter into a war of attrition. Blake can play defense and make stamina a factor in his favor. Roddick hits a heavy kicking topspin second serve. On clay Roddick is going to hit fewer aces so he should primarily use his kick serve and force his opponent to deal with a ball that is above shoulder height. In this way Roddick could get soft replies and take over points. Neither guy is ever going to be great on this surface, but if they play to their strengths and adopt some clay court grit Patrick McEnroe might be able to squeeze a title or two out of this nucleus.
