By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

How shaky is US captain Patrick McEnroe's faith in James Blake? Apparently less stable than the Bay Bridge during an earthquake, which is why PMac chose Mardy Fish over Blake to team up with Andy Roddick for Friday's opening singles matches in the US Davis Cup World Group qualifier against the Slovak Republic.

Fish will face off against Slovak No. 1 Karol Kucera in the second singles, the same man him stunned him at the US Open just over two weeks ago. Fish may have had a standout summer on the hardcourts prior to the Open, but he has never been a force on clay and owes much of his recent success to an improved serve and volley attack. How that is going to serve him on slow clay in Bratislava is nearly beyond comprehension, but he does have decent groundies, so maybe the captain has seen him pull off some wondrous shotmaking in practice.

"It was a pretty close match, and I think it could be like this now too. It will be a tough match for both of us," Fish said of his loss to Kucera at the Open.

Because of his superior movement and his ability to control points with his forehand on dirt, Blake seemed to be the obvious choice. But McEnroe must have lost confidence in him after he dropped the deciding match to Ivan Ljubicic against Croatia back in February.

"It was a very tough decision, both guys worked very hard. I feel lucky to have the luxury of this decision and to have them both here," McEnroe said. "Mardy played very well recently, and he deserves to play, but it wasn't anything that James did or didn't do."

Apparently, Fish took out Blake in practice, which made it easier for McEnroe to make the call.
"I just felt like Mardy was playing too well for me not to give him the chance to play," McEnroe said. "That really made the decision for me."

Even Kucera was expecting Blake, rather than the tall kid he schooled in New York. "I was a little surprised,'' he said. "I thought Blake is a little bit better player on clay than Mardy.''

Fortunately for McEnroe, Roddick will play the first match against Dominik Hrbaty, a classic underachiever. Even if Fish loses to Kucera, the Bryan brothers should be able to beat whoever is in front of them and Roddick – if he plays up to his capability on clay – should hit his way through Kucera.

"We are expecting a tough match, but we are confident," McEnroe said. "We know that the Slovaks have a lot of experience, especially in Davis Cup, and we certainly are not expecting it to be easy, but we are extremely confident of our chances. Playing away in Davis Cup is always tough but on the whole, our guys are playing the best they've ever played in their careers, so that gives us a lot of confidence."

This could be a win or resign match for the captain, as it's improbable that should the team lose and have to play relegation ties next year, that someone in the USTA won't ask McEnroe to call it quits. A nation as talented as the US should never be out of the World Group.

Federer vs. Australia

© Mark Lyons

The weekend's most attractive tie will be held in Melbourne (where else?) where Lleyton Hewitt will try to salvage his lousy season by leading Australia to a semifinal victory over Switzerland and Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.

Hewitt will likely routine Michel Kratochvil in the first match, before Federer and Wimbledon finalist Philippoussis have a rematch in the second contest, this time on Rebound Ace at Melbourne Park.
You still have to give Federer the edge in the match based on overall talent, but as he showed in his loss to David Nalbandian at the US Open, the Swiss is more than capable of hitting a dry spell, which is why a Scud upset is quite possible.

On Saturday, Wayne Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge will partner to face Federer and aging Swiss captain Marc Rosset, who teamed up in their April victory over France.

It looks like Federer will need to win all of his matches, but he has done so before and relishes the challenge. "For me it doesn't matter really," he said. "I'm at a point where I really don't care. I'm used to that."

Argentina's B Team vs. mighty Spain
Over in Malaga, the Spaniards caught a real break when Argentina's top three players – David Nalbandian, Guillermo Coria and Guillermo Canas pulled out of their Davis Cup tie with injuries. It's a tribute to Argentina's depth that they are able to start the competent likes of No. 32 ranked Gaston Gaudio and No. 24 Mariano Zabaleta, but both will be underdogs against No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero and No. 6 Carlos Moya.

Ferrero will open against Gaudio and then Moya will face off against Mariano Zabaleta. Spain is being called overwhelming favorites in this tie, which will put substantial pressure of former Roland Garros champs Ferrero and Moya. The Argentines will be no pushovers and an upset is not out of the question.
"Zabaleta is a great fighter," Moya said. "He's improved a lot over the last year and this is going to be very tough."

Spanish coach Gustavo Luza added, "If we take our chances we can hit hard on Friday Spain are the favorites and that can work for you or against you. If we get the chance we're going to make things difficult for them."

Spain is so strong that neither two-time French finalist Alex Corretja or '02 champ Albert Costa have been called on to play singles and will contest the doubles against Lucas Arnold and Agustin Calleri.

Fed Cup reeling
Is it time for the ITF to consider junking Fed Cup, a perennial money-loser that just lost its most attractive semifinal in at least a decade when Belgians Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters said they would not play against the United States in semifinals in Moscow in November?

Maybe so, because now there is little motivation for the Serena and Venus Williams to go, so what was going to be a Clash of Titans is now going to be a Contest of Who Cares between the likes of Els Callens and Chanda Rubin.

It's impossible to promote such a competition, even if the Russians do upend France in the other semis and reach the final. Russian tennis fans know as well as anyone else that beating B and C teams are nothing to get excited about. You can bet that ticket sales in Red Square are slow going.

It's time for the ITF to either completely change the format to make it more attractive to its star players – where they only have to play twice a year – or let it go all together, because if the game's queens are too selfish to play for their countries, then why bother to expend time or funds on them? Henin-Hardenne says she's suffering with a back injury and has to stop playing after the WTA Tour Championships, while Clijsters doesn't have any interest in extending her season, either. Neither have admitted it yet, but given how much verbal sparring the two countrywomen have been through the past two months, being on the same team with a now dreaded rival more than likely pushed them both to pull out.

The sad loss of Yetunde Price
tennisreporters.net sends it best wishes to the Williams family, which lost Yetunde Price last weekend to what appears to be a gangland murder in their hometown of Compton, Calif. The half-sister of Venus and Serena, Yetunde was like a second mother to the tennis stars, often cooking for them. Price was divorced and had three children, ages 5, 9 and 11. She lived in Corona, 40 miles east Compton, was a registered nurse and owned a beauty salon.