US faces daunting Cup defense
PORTLAND, Oregon: After wrapping up its first Davis Cup title in 12 years, the United States looked forward to a daunting run of likely away ties in its 2008 defense.
Although the triumphant Americans have become formidable on hardcourt surfaces, doubles specialist Bob Bryan accepts they face an uphill task playing top claycourt teams away from home.
"It's going to be tough to win two singles matches against a Spain or an Argentina," Bryan told a news conference after losing his reverse singles to Russia's Igor Andreev on Sunday.
"That's pretty obvious. They've got some incredible players, monsters. If we get one of those teams, we're probably going to be severe underdogs."
The US has been drawn to play Austria away in its opening World Group match in February. After that, it faces the prospect of France at home in the quarters before a trip to either Germany or Spain in the last four.
However, a key to its 2007 success was winning two tricky away ties against the Czech Republic, in the first round, and Sweden in the semifinals.
"The win in Ostrava was big because we played a clay court away tie against a very good team," US captain Patrick McEnroe said as he celebrated his team's breakthrough Davis Cup success after seven unsuccessful years in charge.
"The three other years we've made it far, the semis twice and the finals, we played very strong countries on clay.
"So this year, when we won that, we thought maybe things can break right for us," added McEnroe, whose team completed a 4-1 victory over Russia in the final.
"To go to Sweden and to win away in the semis was big and I think we caught a little break when Argentina lost (to Sweden in the quarters). They would have been very tough on clay.
"I think the experience that these guys have had over the years was really key towards handling our away matches and also handling the emotion of the home matches really well."
Major pluses for the US in its 2007 campaign were the form of world No 6 Andy Roddick, who won all six singles matches, and the dominance of the Bryan brothers, the world's top-ranked doubles team.
In this week's final, though, the pivotal match was the gutsy 6-3, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 victory by American No 2 James Blake over Mikhail Youzhny.
"When James plays like that, it's going to be tough to beat this team," Bob Bryan said. "James is the X factor. We know he can beat anyone, and he showed that this week.
"Youzhny I thought played incredible and James stepped up and beat a really tough player."
Agencies
(China Daily 12/04/2007 page24)
