Was This the Davis Cup or Maybe Cup?

I watched Andy Roddick clinch the Davis Cup quarterfinal tie against Fernando Gonzalez of Chile the other day, and I was unimpressed. Yes, unimpressed. I have to say that I felt the same watching James Blake lose to Gonzalez on the first day, as well.

The Davis Cup tie was held on American soil, and played on grass to boot. For a bunch of dirtballers like the Chileans, the choice of grass should have spelled doom from the first serve. Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu are extraordinary clay court players, and potent hard court players. Put them on slick, somewhat uneven bouncing grass, and their games come right apart. And they did.

So, too, unfortunately, did the games of the Americans. As I sat and watched the matches on my television, I was amazed at how much it looked like a clay court match on a green, slippery surface. While James Blake did in fact come to the net more then Andy Roddick, the truth is that both players spent the better part of both matches sitting on the baseline and bashing with the Chileans, not how you play grass court tennis!

Roddick seemed to be getting grass court play some, as he took a little off his first serve and sliced most of his deuce court serves out wide. He won a lot of free points that way, but more because Gonzalez and Massu weren't smart enough to figure out they were on grass. Both spent way too much time cheating on their backhand sides and left wide gaps for perfect grass court serving.

On the ad side, however, Roddick insisted on trying to hit flat serves to the backhand rather then take advantage of the nice slice opening up the middle. Since Andy does not possess the kicker Pete Sampras did, it was a foolish play to try and for most of the first two sets on the final day it had him in trouble with Gonzalez.

I say that Roddick "seemed to be getting grass court" tennis because he was serving half of the points in a way consistent with grass court tennis, but then he rarely, if ever, came to the net behind his serve. Serve and volley is grass court strategy to perfection. More often than not, you win on grass from the net.

Legendary player Bjorn Borg even spent years perfecting his serve and volley game to ensure his success at Wimbledon. Watching Borg in the final of the French Open then at the final of Wimbledon was like watching night and day. Bjorn's patience on clay was supreme, and he could rally from the backcourt all day. Jump ahead two weeks, and you see a different Borg — one who changed his forehand grip from western to eastern, sliced more serves than twisted or topspun them, and one who was always at the net following a great serve.

Which brings me back to Roddick. Possessing a huge first serve and a potent forehand is not enough to beat most players today. Not even on grass. Roddick's game continues to be incomplete and it showed during the tie. Yes, Roddick has been runner-up at Wimbledon twice, and has a winning record on grass. But has never faced a true grass court player early in the tournament and has always been beaten by Roger Federer on the green stuff. Also, he has never changed his game to suit the surface, which is death in tennis. Fernando Gonzalez has played respectably at the Big W, and has progressively gotten deeper into the draw with each year he plays there.

The choice of James Blake appeared to be a no-brainer, but almost turned out to be a lame-brained move. Blake to date in 2006 is the hottest player on the men's tour, and it isn't hard to believe his performance would continue, especially against a player not suited for the grass court surface.

I wanted to know why Blake did so poorly in this tie, so I went to my 2006 Official Guide to Professional Tennis and saw an interesting statistic. Blake and Gonzalez have nearly identical won-loss records at Wimbledon. Yes, Blake won the Newport tournament on grass a few years ago but on the big stage, both players have equally distinguished themselves. Massu has a losing record at Wimbledon, but he's just a match below .500. So based on that, I can clearly understand why Blake lost to Gonzalez on day one of the tie. He played a clay court game, and lost to a clay court player.

I had the chance to talk to Patrick McEnroe (and pregnant wife Melissa Errico) the weekend prior to the Davis Cup, at Gene Scott's memorial funeral service (which I'll talk about a little more later). I agreed that he was putting a very tough U.S. team on the carpet, even though he couldn't be there.

I wish that I had the chance to talk to Pat Mac after the tie. I would have asked him why he didn't choose his brother, John McEnroe, to play the singles on grass. If you want to compare records and styles, it's clear that even at his advanced age (hey, John, I'm just a couple of years behind you), he would have dominated both Gonzalez and Massu and the tie would have been over on Saturday with the victory of the doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan.

I can only hope that for the next round, Pat McEnroe takes a hard look at the numbers, and chooses the best player for the situation, surface, and time. It has been way too long since the U.S. has held the Davis Cup high.

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Now a little about Gene Scott. Most of the non-tennis world will probably not recognize the name, but for those of us in the tennis industry, he was an all-time great, a giant fish in our tiny pond. The founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Tennis Week magazine, Gene was a perennial U.S. top-10 player in the 1960s who made it to the semis of the U.S. Championships in 1967.

After his playing days were over on the tour, Gene took up the sport of court or real tennis, and was a 10-time U.S. champion and ranked as high as third in the world. In his spare time, Gene was the commentator for the historic Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs match in the old Houston Astrodome, a tournament organizer, referee, and director. It was Gene Scott who founded the Kremlin Cup in Moscow and discovered our precious Anna Kournikova.

Gene passed suddenly a few weeks ago, and with his passing, tennis lost its greatest voice, its biggest advocate, and one of the only men in all of sports who truly exemplified the phrase "no man is bigger than the game." In an era where fame and power often lead to seclusion and distance, Gene remained open and accessible, even to his last day.

At his funeral service, attended by the most famous, powerful, and influential people in tennis, John McEnroe and Billie Jean King gave eulogies. While their words were poetic, for me, they will fade over time. The biggest tribute to Gene that day, at least for me, was to see Dr. Rene Richards quietly and discreetly slip into the back of the church for the service. Gene was the most inclusive man I have ever known, and Dr. Richard's appearance may be the most fitting tribute to the essence of Gene Scott.

I will miss you, Gene. Maybe you'll let me write a column for you when we meet again.