Davis Cup Semifinals

[don_budge]

2014 Davis Cup Finals...France vs. Switzerland

All good. Would have been great to see Federer and Berdych square off for the Davis Cup. A win/win for me. But The French stepped up when they needed to. Plus Stepanek was hobbled by a back injury in which he said he would never have played if it wasn't Davis Cup. No excuses though. It wouldn't have mattered, Tsonga and Gasquet played some remarkable ball.

The finals will be in November in France. Word on the street is it wil be in Lille, France. That pretty little town in the North near the Belgian border. It will be too cold for outdoors, so it will be indoors. The question is what surface will the French choose. Indoor clay or indoor hard. Either way, advantage Fed.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

It's great that you once again brought the Davis Cup to our attention here on the forum.

That's a fitting final...France vs. Switzerland. Don't you think? I like the French more and more. They have a curious approach to tennis as a whole...their approach doesn't seem to be one as a whole. There seems to be much room for individual interpretation of the game. They have yet to produce the world beater but they have many players at the top echelon of the game. Interesting...n'est-ce pas?

It will be an interesting decision making process for the French Federation to decide upon the court surface and their lineup for that matter. The doubles for the Swiss will also be an interesting decision...particularly if the tie hinges on the doubles. If they split the first two singles or worse then Federer will be forced to play in the doubles which would be more entertaining than their lackluster substitute against the Italians.

Yeah...the would have's and could have's. The Czech's against the Swiss would not have been nearly as interesting your interest in Tomas Berdych aside. It's always interesting to speculate but the votes are in. Viva la France! The underdogs...let's just hope that they can make it ultimately interesting. Davis Cup could use a bit of a jolt. A jump start. That could one cool event there in that small town of France. A party!

The Parisian hour...Celine style.

[GeoffWilliams]

Neither GAsquet nor Tsonga will beat both Wawrinka and Federer. So it will come down to doubles. Wawrinka's volleys were bad last time out.

[klacr]

Neither GAsquet nor Tsonga will beat both Wawrinka and Federer. So it will come down to doubles. Wawrinka's volleys were bad last time out.

Correct Geoff. As for the Wawrinka volleys, The Swiss team knows this and the French team knows this. I expect to see Wawrinka's name in doubles draw for the indoor tournaments from here until the davis cup finals. He needs to reps in doubles to build his confidence. That's half the battle.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[GeoffWilliams]

When you've been trained not to go to the net all your life, it's more than half the battle.

[GeoffWilliams]

Davis cup is dead anyway. No one watches, comes to matches, or cares. Top players don't play for that reason.

[klacr]

Sell out crowd in Paris for French-Czech Repblic Tie. Arena in Geneva for Swiss-Italy looked like it was rocking. Only sparse crowd I noticed was sadly in Chicago...for USA-Slovakia. Arena was literally empty. Thats really sad!!!

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[tennis_chiro]

Davis Cup is a big deal everywhere else in the world. Countries that don't have Grand Slam tournaments finance their tennis associations with Davis Cup.

don

[klacr]

Davis Cup is much like soccer and goat meat.

It's popular everywhere else but United States. Soccer the most popular sport and goat is the #1 consumed meat in the world. The difference however, soccer is boring and goat is delicious.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

USA Davis Cup Tradition...John McEnroe

Davis Cup is a big deal everywhere else in the world. Countries that don't have Grand Slam tournaments finance their tennis associations with Davis Cup.

don

When the game was largely an amateur sport Davis Cup traditionally played a huge role in the perceived success of a nation's tennis program. Obviously when the game went professional this was another of the traditions that was going to go the way of the Dodo bird...as Stotty once put it.

John McEnroe was perhaps the greatest Davis Cup contributor that the USA ever knew once the game was in the money. He expounds at length about the glory of Davis Cup and his dedication to The Cup in his book "Serious". For all of his perceived foibles and human frailties that the holier than now crusaders on this forum hold him accountable for...if you consider his Davis Cup contributions it reveals a part of his character that is downright admirable.

John played during the most volatile period of tennis in the history of the game. His personality must be observed from a historical perspective. "Being John McEnroe" is a book written by Tim Adams that sort of explains the phenomena. Not that the small minded give a hoot...historically they are quite content with the limited perceptions as well. Not paying stringers...big deal. Stringers are notorious odd balls...how does a story like that get started and gain traction. Answer...it doesn't. I have never heard that in all of my life...except here.

Here's an article about John McEnroe on the cusp of classic and modern tennis, on the cusp of greatness and on the cusp of genius and madness. The author writes about the 1984 Wimbledon final and never mentions the disparity in the racquets of McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. History is a funny story...if you leave out a detail here or there it changes everything. Did you ever wonder about the history of man? The world? The USA? Davis Cup? I have.

http://www.psmag.com/culture/john-mcenroe-sadness-greatness-66758/

Here's another one about the book..."Being John McEnroe".

[don_budge]

Colin Montgomerie taking charge...Leadership

Davis Cup is a big deal everywhere else in the world. Countries that don't have Grand Slam tournaments finance their tennis associations with Davis Cup.

don

The United States of America Davis Cup team is lacking in many departments. One of those key departments is competent players. Davis Cup used to be a big deal in the USA but it isn't anymore. The USA also used to have a high end of the leading players in the world and the two diminishing aspects of American tennis could go hand in hand.

The lack of Davis Cup initiative reflects upon the lack of competent players. Perhaps if somehow Davis Cup was to get a shot in the arm American tennis might similarly be revived.

The difference in Davis Cup from the ATP circuit is two fold. One aspect is money and the other is about the emphasis on the team over the individual. Tennis is a notorious individual endeavor and the money in the professionalism of the sport has no doubt created a monster in terms of selfishness but perhaps another thing it has bred is a lack of team camaraderie. Whereas team sports have leaders within the team to provide the initiative and motivation...tennis may be seen as lacking this aspect of a team sport.

College tennis and American Davis Cup excellence used to be two real motivating drives in the sport of tennis and it seems that interest is waning. Perhaps it will never be revived...a sign of the times. Bad times.

Here is a story...an article about some golfers. Another individual game that lays aside their individualism for the team one time a year in the Ryder Cup. Read how Seve Ballesteros motivated an elite group of golf stars when he treated them as "school boys". It was a wake up call...to reality.

http://www.ey.com/GL/en/About-us/ryder-cup-2014---EY-sponsoring-the-european-team---captains-blog?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=InContent&utm_content=Naughty_Schoolboys&utm_campaign=Ryder_Cup_2014

Building a Ryder Cup team
Posted: 5 September 2014

Colin Montgomerie has never lost a Ryder Cup singles match. And as Europe’s captain in 2010, he led the team to victory at Celtic Manor. Here, he reflects on his experiences as a player and a leader.

Assessing talent

When looking at players, I wouldn’t be studying data and saying: “He has hit 16 greens in regulation in the practice round, therefore I’m going to pick him.”

I would think: “How is this guy feeling? Are he and his caddie having fun?”

Say I was interviewing as a manager in a business. I wouldn’t necessarily take the guy who came in with four As. In 2010, Paul Casey was a four-A golfer.

I left him out and picked Edoardo Molinari, who was more of a two As, two Bs player. I picked someone ranked 40 in the world, compared with someone at number 8, because I was thinking about the team.

Managing high performers

I will never forget what happened at the 17th hole during practice, ahead of the 1997 Ryder Cup. I was with Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam. I was playing in my fourth Ryder Cup, and we were all experienced players.

We played the hole quite badly, and we were going on to the 18th hole to finish the practice round. Then Seve Ballesteros, the captain that year, came to us and said: “I am not happy with this. I want you all to go back to the 17th hole and play it properly.”

I looked at Faldo and he looked at me, Woosnam and Langer and we were thinking: “What has he just told us to do?” It was like schoolboy stuff. But Seve was dead right.

And I remembered this when I was captain. There were a lot of big characters in that team of mine. It contained Major winners and stars of past and future.

I said to them: “I’m very glad, lads, that you have left your egos at the door of Celtic Manor. You can pick them up on the way out.” And there weren’t any egos in there at all.

“You’ve all got a job to do,” I said. “I want to get 14.5 points. I don’t care who does it, and neither should you. We are all helping each other for the same cause.”

Building a team culture

There are only 12 players on the team, but my first speech as captain was in front of about 80 people.

I got together the players’ wives and partners, the caddies, the caddies’ wives and partners, the Tour referees, the media team and the scoreboard operators. So my team knew exactly who everybody was.

The physiotherapists were in there, the chefs who were cooking the meals were in there. I introduced everybody to everybody.

It was a team to start with. There was never “these are the players, they’re not talking to the chefs.”

I was very aware of the fact that I wanted everybody around the players to feel that they were part of a winning team.


I am not suggesting anything...it is only a little food for thought on building a team culture. Remember...an organization is only as good as it's organization. What is the key to any organization? The key to any organization is it's organization. Organization includes everything and everyone...not just the superstars.

[bottle]

its

(If we ever meet, you are going to do something like that to my serve, and I'll be glad, so you should be, too.)