Davis Cup A Must-Win Situation for Kafelnikov

Has the “Y” man put too much pressure on himself?
Will injuries on French team lead To US success?

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

There’s no denying that Yevgeny Kafelnikov has put a great deal of pressure on himself heading into the Davis Cup semifinal against Argentina this weekend. Now the question is whether the “Y” man can handle that self-induced pressure or will he fall apart?

Kafelnikov is 28-years-old and all year long has been talking that he’s ready to leave the game behind except for one missing component on his resume – delivering a first ever Davis Cup victory for Russia.

Of his impressive accomplishments, Kafelnikov has tasted success at the Grand Slams, having won Roland Garros and Australian Open as well as the Olympic gold medal amongst his 26 career titles. A former world No. 1, Kafelnikov’s amassed over $22 million in prize money to pay the bills back in Sochi.

As the draw worked out, Kafelnikov will play Gaston Gaudio in Friday’s second match following Marat Safin going off against Juan Ignacio Chela. Kafelnikov and Safin will face David Nalbandian and Arnold Lukas in the doubles. In Sunday’s reverse singles, Safin takes on Gaudio and Kafelnikov could have the challenging task of closing out the tie in a decisive fifth rubber against Chela.

On paper, most everything seems to be in the Russian’s favor – two talented former world No. 1’s, home court advantage and a fast indoor surface that is not favorable to the Argentinians.

BIG HEAD CASES MAKE FOR BIG PRESSURE
Nevertheless, both Kafelnikov and Safin are known for not being able to always keep their heads in pressure cooker situations and this weekend’s tie has a great deal at stake. This will definitely be a pressure situation, especially for Kafelnikov, who has been talking nonstop all year about leaving the game if he wins the Davis Cup.

Of course, Kafelnikov often talks a good game and he did so after the draw was announced, seemingly thrilled to possibly be in a position to win the semifinal in a decisive fifth set. Indeed, Kafelnikov was quoted about the draw, saying, “I find it interesting. It gives me a chance to play in the decisive match. Hopefully, I can clinch this match for Russia.”

Despite his enthusiasm, it’s hard to avoid the question as to whether Kafelnikov’s nerves hold up if that scenario ends up reality?

Despite the odds against them, it would be very foolish for the Russians to underestimate the capabilities of their Argentinean adversaries. The South American country might be in political and economic turmoil, but their current men’s tennis outlook is in superb shape. The fact that Argentina is without Guillermo Cañas shouldn’t diminish their chances since the team they’ve put together is quite noteworthy.

NALBANDIAN NIXED FOR SINGLES
One must wonder, however, what went into Argentina’s captain, Alejandro Gattiger’s, decision to only utilize Wimbledon finalist Nalbandian in the doubles. Clearly, Nalbandian is a hard-serving, hard-hitting player who can handle fast court surfaces, so you can’t help thinking this is a thinly veiled scheme to save Nalbandian for cleanup in one of Sunday’s singles matches.

Of the decision to delegate Nalbandian to doubles-only duty, Gattiger said, “It was not easy to say no to the Wimbledon runner-up but I have a lot of confidence in all our players.”

Whether Kafelnikov is ready to leave tennis behind or just believes he’s ready to leave the sport is hard to know at this point. Certainly, he’s had many unimpressive and uninspiring moments on the court this season. Yet it is hard to forget that this is a man who has made a reputation of playing more tournaments than other top players – whether that was just a method to rack in the most money possible as many believe or his desire to play all the time, only he knows for sure.

If the “Y” man were smart, he would forget his constant declarations that he needs the Davis Cup victory to retire and just concentrate on playing the semifinal tie. For even if Russia gets through this tie, winning the Davis Cup is not a guarantee for Russia since either the United States or France looms large in the final.

Will injuries on French team lead To US success?

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

Although the two stars of the French Davis Cup team have been dealing with injuries – Arnaud Clement has had a wrist injury and Sebastien Grosjean arrived at Roland Garros with a back injury – don’t expect that those problems will make life easier for the US team trying to reach the Davis Cup final at year’s end.

The truth is that any which way you turn this semifinal tie between France and the US, the French seemingly have the edge:home court advantage on a slow clay court surface with a top team. Taking that into the account, it’s hard not to like the way captain Patrick McEnroe, who as expected turned out to be a born motivator of men, is talking about confidence and capabilities on the terre battue of Roland Garros.

While McEnroe was unable to motivate either recent US Open champion Pete Sampras or former French Open champ Andre Agassi to Paris, he has young and enthusiastic guns Andy Roddick, James Blake and Mardy Fish as well as the always extremely loyal veteran Todd Martin, on his squad.

WE WANT SAMPRAS
Although we acknowledge that clay is not Sampras’s natural forum, we take exception to his failure to here the call to Davis Cup duty since he’s continually declared all year long that he’d be there for Davis Cup despite the circumstances. Just the presence of Sampras, a 13-time Grand Slam champion, playing doubles with Martin, Fish or Blake, would have given the French some pause for worry. The only acceptable excuse for Sampras would be if he decides that that US Open was the high note he wants to go out on, but if he continues to play, he should have played in Paris.

As for Agassi, while tennisreporters.net and the rest of the US would have loved to see him say yes to McEnroe since he is our best clay court offering bar none, we can’t be too hard on him since he’s honestly said all year long he would not be available to play Davis Cup. Agassi has certainly answered the call to Davis Cup service throughout most of his career, but we would have appreciated him doing so again.

That said, the US must hope that the enthusiasm of Roddick and Blake will be enough to fire them past the talented Grosjean and Clement, not to mention a strong doubles team of Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra.

As the draw played out, Clement and Roddick get the tie underway on Friday followed by Grosjean and Blake. Saturday’s doubles slate calls for Santoro and Llodra taking on Fish and Martin, but McEnroe has left the door open to substitute Blake in to tandem action as well as singles. In the reverse singles on Sunday, Grosjean takes on Roddick followed by Clement and Blake.

Both Roddick and Blake head into the tie with perfect Davis Cup records – Roddick is 7-0 and Blake is 5-0, but trying to be the leaders of a tie on foreign soil will be a new situation for the two young Americans.

CLAY COULD CRAMP AMERICANS
It is hard to forget that the opening matches will be real tests for Roddick and Blake. Roddick lost to Clement in their only career outing, on clay, at the World Team Cup event in May. For his part, Blake lost to Grosjean in their only career outing, on clay, in the second round at Roland Garros this May.

As for history, the US has won the Davis Cup a record 31 times to France only winning the Cup on 13 occasions. Playing against each other, the US holds a slim 7-6 edge over France, but in their one career meeting at Roland Garros, which came in 1932, the French were 3-2 victors.

One essential element about this tie is that win or lose, McEnroe has already been told by the USTA he’s back in the captain saddle again for next year. This will keep the distraction that this is a must-win tie to have the job next year out of his mind and leaves him to just focus on team morale. McEnroe is a clever guy and he must know that it is unlikely that he should count on either Roddick or Blake coming up with clean slate wins in both their singles matches. But if he can calm their nerves and talk them through some wins he could possibly come out lucky and be in the finals, or at the very least, be happy with great strides made by a young team that has years of quality tennis in front of them, not to mention, a sincere dedication to Davis Cup.