What The…Federer?

Guess it’s Wawrinka or bust. I’d think now the tie at 1-1, the Swiss will put up Federer and Wawrinka for doubles and if they win it, bench Federer on purpose for singles duty let Wawrinka handle the pressure of the fifth rubber.

Wasnt Fed injured?

Btw, Stan did mention something that tells that he always feels ignored. Here is the Wawrinkar quote from daviscup.com site (http://www.daviscup.com/en/news/191381.aspx)

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“But I just have a good team around me. I know how to play those matches. I did so many big matches, so many important matches this year. Today it’s important to show them that I’m there. They maybe [were] too focused [on] Roger and maybe they forgot about me.”
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All 5 of the French players on the team are top 30, and going into this tie they each had winning or even records against Stan, and multiple wins over Fed.

Federer loses in straight sets? With no tiebreaks? Sounds like Federer isn’t match tough and Monfils was ready to get him back for the US Open loss.

My hunch is Federer and Wawrinka are playing doubles tomorrow.

Mike,

The Yzaga and Bastl losses were in early rounds of slams. I didn’t know this but Sampras actually lost to Yzaga twice at the USO, 1988 and 1994, but it was only the Round of 16 where he lost to him in 94.

And yes, I think Davis Cup does mean something pretty big to the players. I’ve never seen Monfils play the way he did today and Tsonga, though he lost, played with an esprit you rarely see from outside Davis Cup. And you can’t tell me guys like McEnroe, Sampras and Roddick didn’t care about Davis Cup. Again, what Sampras did on the clay to win that one Cup was one of the great feats in tennis…Ever.

And, I have in recent years paid much more attention to tennis after the Open. Obviously, the Tennis Channel has had a big impact in my increased interest, but also, the Asian tournaments are more compelling, and I’ve always like the Paris Indoors.

And yes, I did miss mentioning Fed’s great show at Wimbledon this year. I didn’t see that finals match, but it is a big feather in his headband. I’m just kind of shocked that Fed lost to Monfils today.

Gasquet for doubles is indeed a bit of a head-scratcher. Not a great doubles record and not even that much experience playing with Benneteau, though they did win a bronze medal in London. He’s also a bit of a headcase and doesn’t usually play all that well in big matches or in front of a home crowd.

Llodra is on the team. I would have played Llodra/Benneteau.

Any team that knew right from left would be better. Gasquet? C’mon…Gasquet is #4 in the singles and even there he hasn’t been strong this year. That said he probably played because he had had a good davis cup year, even in doubles with tsonga.

When Federer and Wawrinka care in doubles, they can win anything. So far Tsonga is shouldering the blame. Id think he comes in swinging tomorrow.

How did the McPherson Swiss combo come about? Any one have some info on this? First I have heard about it.

Gasquet played instead of Tsonga? No wonder France lost…the competitive lineup was passed up in favor of Gasquet, who even though he has had a good davis cup year is not the right player when everything is on the line. congratulations team Switzerland…that was a colossal victory.
Cant even say this was expected. Not an upset but an upset wasn’t even a remote possibility after the tie started because of Wawrinka I would say. He set the tone.

Scoop, in all fairness it should probably be noted that a back spasm is not an injury in the proper, conventional sense:
[…]Muscle spasms…more commonly occur because of an underlying condition[…]
[…]Muscle spasms are involuntary, spontaneous contractions of a muscle. Although “back attacks” seem to occur out of the blue, the movement that triggers the incident is generally preceded by a series of small strains to the structures of the spine that develops slowly, over time. Once injured, inflammation sets in. This, in turn, sensitizes the nerves, causing the muscle/s to contract and spasm[…]
[…]Muscle spasm in the low back is exceedingly painful and often debilitating over the short-term[…]
[…]it’s a warning sign that there’s maybe something else happening. In most cases, it’s probably self-limited and the pain will go away on its own or with conservative treatment[…]
Having suffered from a herniated disc and ever since recurring lower back pain, I can assure you that the scare is always there when you suddenly feel a twitch – I always hope it’s merely a functional rather than a structural complaint (=real injury) because the first-mentioned can actually often wear off considerably within a couple of days of enough rest and treatment. However, when you’re playing competitively and the back suddenly starts to rebel or just feels uptight, the faith into your body really goes AWOL swiftly. I’m a passionate “table tennista” and when the aforementioned happens, I put on the handbrake – regaining confidence into your stroke production/execution always takes me some time and patience.
I agree with Harold on the possible cortisone shot, sounds plausible.

What do you mean, credit to Kevin Arias…I’m the one who picked Swissland over all you Francophiles. How could France play Gasquet. Clement should be fired after his blundering with the lineup. I would definitely have gone with Simon or Benny over Gasquet. Gasquet couldn’t beat Chardy in a big match in France. The French have let down Monfils who looked ready to create Davis Cup history.

But here’s a hurrah for Roger for finally cementing the DCup victory with only one other very good player by his side.

Hi everyone,

It’s amazing that Federer is the only one realizing (see his comments after the match) that one player does not “win the Davis Cup”, thus the reason I personally refuse to include Davis Cup in the GOAT discussions, because it is officially, unofficially, logically, and mathematically impossible for “X player to win the Davis Cup”, not to mention the disrespect that sentence implies to the others on the team.

Clement will catch a lot of grief, as any Davis Cup captain does after such finals, but he did the best he could do. The choice of not having Roger-Vasselin was correct, as he needed a third singles player in case of injury (which it happened), the choice to put Gasquet with Benneteau was correct since Tsonga not wanting to play left him with that choice as his best. The choice to put Gasquet in was also correct, (1) because Tsonga said he couldn’t play, (2) but even if he did, after Friday’s disappointment, and considering Gasquet would keep more balls in play than Tsonga against Federer, that would have been a beter choice anyway imo. And most of all, I don’t think anyobody, I mean ANYBODY, expected Wawrinka to play at the level that he did againts Tsonga on Friday, Waw-Fed to play at the level they did on Saturday, nor Fed to play at the level he did on Sunday. Clement would have been decalred a hero had Federer’s back remained bad ans lost his fourth match, and Monfils won his fifth. Noah went with Leconte in 1991 in singles (off of a back surgery 4 months before, and totally fledgling career), I remember the French press was ready to fire him one week before the weekend started. Now that is remembered as one of the greatest tennis weekends in their history. Davis Cup victories hinge on very little, minute details, a lot more complicated for a Captain to lead his team to victory, than for a player to win an individual tournament.

Hi Scoop,

Yes, when he made it clear that he would play Leconte in singles (not in precise words, but it was clear between the lines), the press threw him under the bus, but he stuck with it and I remember that Leconte was ranked well below at least 3 other French players and had back surgery in the summer. Noah simply said that Leconte’s experience was irreplaceable. It was a risky move but Leconte produced marvelously, and when he beat Sampras in straight sets on Friday, the press did not know how to cover their earlier statements.

You described the game of tennis better than anyone could have in a few concise sentences. Beautiful game. Thanks!

Hi Dan,

He had the Gasquet/Simon option (prior to the final selection), and he took Gasquet because he preferred Tsonga/Gasquet for doubles (solid doubles team, they beat Stepanek/Berdych in the last round) over ERV-Ben, believing that would give him an extra player for singles in Gasquet, and would avoid the fall-apart if one of the singles player got hurt had he picked ERV-Ben (which turned out to be the case). So, if it was not for Tsonga not feeling ready to play, we would have seen Gasquet-Tsonga in doubles. I believe that was the right call.

As to your next question, Bennetteau is simply not Gasquet. Anyone in Clement’s position would have had a lot of explaining to do even before the weekend if he picked Benneteau to play today with Gasquet sitting on the side. Federer beating Benneteau would then bring the “What? Gasquet sitting and Benneteau playing?” rhetoric. Davis Cup Captains don’t have the luxury to rewrite history with “if”s like we do. I don’t believe that even he thought Wawrinka and Federer would overachieve in doubles and singles (Fed only today) to this point.

I agree on Wawrinka as the hero here and whoever coached them in doubles. Quite a story of Noah and Leconte, Noah knew that an emotional player like Leconte would catch fire. I was thinking Tsonga would have also but Wawrinka just iced him. Yep, Stan began the year with a triumph and ended it with a triumph. Djokovic is the player of the year and Wawrinka is the man of the year in tennis.

Ok, the Monfils interview shows again, more discord in Team France. Sounds like Clement couldn’t manage the egos of the under-dog team.

Maybe Gasquet is easier to deal with – you have a few outspoken players in Monfils, Tsonga and Simon and then you have Gasquet who shuts up and plays. Sadly this shows zero discipline – Clement should have been the one voicing the concerns, not Simon, Tsonga, Monfils or anyone else. Sounds like too much ego on team France, they were obviously more doomed than I realized at least!

As for Team Switzerland – real coaching, real leadership. Even if they had the two best players in the tie they STILL got expert coaching for doubles, still took nothing for granted. The pressure got to Wawrinka and Federer, which I thought would spill over into Davis Cup but what happens instead – they worked it out and shoved it aside for the team.

And they were disciplined in their communication, not a word about who should play or how they should play or anything. Seems like they won the tie even before they stepped on the court.

Shows how much I know again – nothing. I think the events have to be followed pretty closely – obviously within team France there were too many landmines – too many arguments, too many egos, too much “me” and not much “we”.

France won in 01 with no slam champs, beating a slam team in Hewitt and Rafter with Escude and Grosjean…in Australia. A Nadal-less team in 2008 beat Nalbandian and Del Potro in Argentina. I dont think it is off the mark to believe France had a shot especially with more time to prepare.

Apparently Tsonga was injured before the tie but decided to play anyway. Gasquet or Simon versus Wawrinka is still a tough match but better than Tsonga who should have sat it out.

Simon didnt have much say – looks like Tsonga set the tone and was the leader. He should have grabbed a clipboard rather than play hero.

From tennis.com – “With plenty of quality players available, the French had many alternatives to the option of sticking with Tsonga. France reserve player Gilles Simon ducked the question when asked if he thought he should have been given his chance.

”It’s a long time since I stopped thinking that way,” said Simon, who defeated Wawrinka last month at the Shanghai Masters. ”It was Jo’s decision to play. There is no need to start thinking about what would have happened if. Nobody cares about that.”

Monfils needed more than himself to win the tie. If Tsonga was hurt he should not have been on the court – that’s leadership – you trust your team-mates to step in and France had players that could step in capably (this is NOT the situation in the U.S. – not yet, at least).

Now I really think Clement deferred too much to the French stars. At first I thought what can he do, did his best etc. But that line-up didn’t give the best shot given an injured player. Play Monfils vs. Wawrinka and Simon vs. Federer, then maybe you have France up 2-0 going into the doubles.

Anyways as Simon said, no do-overs. Switzerland won because in every way, shape and form they were better. Monfils played a heck of a match, but his effort was under-cut and France’s chances from sloppy decisions. Keep Clement so he can learn from his mistakes.