MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti sports commentator Alexander Gorbunov)
On September 23, while celebrating his victory in the Davis Cup semifinal, Shamil Tarpishchev, captain of the Russian team, might conceivably have been thinking of applying for a U.S. visa on Monday: the American tennis players had defeated the Swedes and, according to tournament rules, became the hosts of the finals.
The visa issue is not an idle one for Tarpishchev. One need only recall the pains he, a many-year member of the International Olympic Committee, had to go through ahead of the recent semifinals of the women's Fed Cup. The captain was refused a visa - without explanations - until the last moment. The sporting world was puzzled. The team left for the match against the American women without Tarpishchev, and he barely made it to the first game.
It is hard to predict what the consular staff of the U.S. Embassy and State Department people will decide now.
The triumph over the German team was only expected. However, it was not easy. Difficulties were of local making. One was the choice of clay. It was fleetingly rumored that it had been made to suit Marat Safin, who later failed to join the team because he was not ready. But the clay decision was a collective one. Some of the players, Nikolai Davydenko, for example, who trained only for a few days on clay, found the surface difficult, but others, such as Igor Andreyev, who won his two matches, easy enough. But that is not the point: the joint decision took account of the interests of the whole team, not any individual tennis player.
Doubles play is perhaps the most serious problem for the Russian men's team, despite their regular successes over recent years in Davis Cup matches. It was weak even against the Germans for whom the Moscow semifinal was the first in the past 12 years.
Mikhail Youzhny and Dmitry Tursunov performed poorly. The reasons were for all to see and were articulated by Youzhny's coach Boris Sobkin. He said the conditions for training had been poor and so was psychological compatibility of the "mini-team." As soon as Youzhny became active, Tursunov looked lost, and the other way around. Although the advantages gained in the singles semifinal (Andreyev alone won two points) allowed the Russians to overwhelm their rivals, it is not the fact that the final will run along the same lines. The real reason is that in Russia coaches have never trained doubles players.
Already now it can be assumed that in the final match with the Americans on November 30-December 2, the Russian team has "minus one point": a pair from Russia (it does not matter who will make it up) will face the Bryan brothers. There is no one stronger than them in the world.
Second- and third-seeded players are today important in team matches. Team leader Tommy Haas, who is difficult to beat on any surface when he is in good form, was defeated at the start of the semifinals. In the Russian team, Nikolai Davydenko, who is currently the leading player (he appeared not very well and for that reason perhaps did not play later in the match), was upset by Philipp Kohlschreiber, a 23-year-old newcomer to the German team who is making good progress.
In different countries players' attitudes to tennis cups differ. Russia is one of the few where practically no player refuses to play for a national team, except for health reasons, as was recently the case with Maria Sharapova (who, however, came to Moscow with an injured shoulder to support the team in the Fed Cup final won by Russia). Refusals, if any, do not occur, I believe, because of the captain, who takes an informal view of his duties, helps his players all the time and for whom the match in the U.S. will be his 103rd, counting all men's Davis Cup and women's Fed Cup tournaments.
Team cups are a heavy drain on the players' strength. Sometimes leading players have to appear on court for three days running and play five-set games without getting ranking points. It is not ruled out that international tennis authorities will soon decide to qualify Davis Cup and Fed Cup participation as participation in individual tournaments.
Tarpishchev seems to have made up his mind about the team for the American final. If nothing unexpected happens, five players will go to the United States: Nikolai Davydenko, Igor Andreyev, Mikhail Youzhny, Dmitry Tursunov and Marat Safin. There is no need to risk now, unlike the time when the national team's coach council took a chance by including the 214th-ranked Andreyev. The team is strong and well-balanced and, incidentally, the running owner of the Davis Cup. It is competitive enough, even on the courts of a very strong opponent.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
