Cracks appear to have reached the surface in the United States Davis Cup team, as they were eliminated in the first round of the World Group for the second year running. After losing to Great Britain in San Diego on the clay surface last year, they fell to the same country this year.
Amid all the chaos that has taken place this week, first with the justified hype around Donald Young after he managed one of his best starts to an ATP season, with a final in Delray Beach and also having a good week in Memphis the previous week, those two performances alone really added to the conversation that maybe he could pull out the stops on a slow indoor hard-court against a Top 5 Grand Slam champion in Andy Murray, but it wasn’t to be.
After the first rubber went in favour of the Great Britain team, many were starting to call for the head of Jim Courier as Davis Cup captain and many respected journalists were baying for blood, regarding the current state of the US Davis Cup team as ‘unacceptable’.
The next rubber saw a Top 20 player in John Isner, although he seemingly hadn’t played Top 20 tennis for quite some time, particularly under new coach Justin Gimelstob, against World No 111 James Ward. The people’s underdog, a position he often thrived upon like against Russia in 2013 vs Dimitry Tursunov and in 2014 against the United States and Sam Querrey, where he was two sets to one down and playing on one of his least favoured surfaces but found a way to win, has a will to win which Jim Courier desperately needs to instil into his own Davis Cup squad.
Ward won 15-13 in the fifth set in a match lasting 4 hours and 52 minutes, another heartbreak for Isner, who’d experienced matches like that at Flushing Meadows and Roland Garros, this time in Davis Cup. The noose around Courier’s neck was forever tightening, many questions being asked over the recruitment process leading into this tie. Should Courier pick four singles players, to open up the case for more places at stake for the singles players or should the two-time Davis Cup winner keep selecting the Bryan Brothers and risk one of the single players either getting injured or being fatigued, which is a similar case to the one he’s in with John Isner now? In many respects, his hands are tied: he’s effectively shown the hand he’s occupied, so Great Britain, to a degree, understand exactly what they have to do Sunday afternoon in the fourth rubber.
There are benefits and flaws to following either methodology about whether to take four singles players, but if United States had the luxury of quality players that a generation of nations like France and Spain do then I could understand the displeasure towards the selection of Jim Courier’s. The United States have fifteen singles players inside the Top 200, I believe nine in the Top 100-200 bracket and six in the Top 100.
Many pondered about the revival of a young Ryan Harrison, after a semi-final run in Acapulco, where he got his first win over a Top 10 opponent in his career, but as I said before these United States batch of players are quality players but are they match winners? Match winners with the killer instinct that players like Bob and Mike Bryan. Sacrificing the Bryans in a rubber which often is regarded as the all important rubber if all four of the others go by rank, then it’s very hard to see the best doubles pairing we’ve seen for many years get disregarded. If anything I think that would arouse more suspicion and scrutiny from the US public.
Many feel Jim Courier is in disarray, with his body language, seemingly subtle and conservative, as is the rest of the Davis Cup team. On one end of the spectrum, Andy Murray was passing on information to Leon Smith, the British Davis Cup Captain, also visibly expressively motivating his compatriot James Ward in that second rubber with John Isner, whereas on the US Davis Cup team it felt like they had no outward energy whatsoever. Is that a problem internally that no-one knows about? It just felt awfully peculiar, with youngsters Francis Tiafoe and Stefan Kozlov watching on the sideline, the two youngsters shared between them half the energy that Andy Murray put into supporting his country.
One point in favour of including three or four singles players is what’s the point in producing a conveyor belt of promising young singles players if you’re not going to introduce them to the ‘World Cup of Tennis’? In South America this week, we saw Christian Garin and Nicolas Jarry, both 18 and 19 respectively, get given their chance to shine at Davis Cup level over higher ranked and more experienced players. Maybe that’s the route that the US need to consider to prepare themselves for the future.
Let’s look at Ryan Harrison, 22 years of age and has been earmarked as the future of American tennis for years, but despite that, has played just one live rubber for the United States and that was against Jo Wilfried Tsonga during the peak of Jim Courier’s tenure when they beat France and Switzerland back in 2012. With Mardy Fish out of top level tennis for the foreseeable future, Querrey very in and out in tennis and his personal life, isn’t this the perfect time to try the Harrisons and the Jack Socks of this world?
It’s Jim Courier’s call, but in a few months time he may not have the authority to make it.
