TENNIS: Some Davis Cup
Sep. 19th, 2023 07:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllI was late to this, learning that GB had managed a surprise victory over Australia (with Leon Smith putting on the in-form players, rather than going by ranking, with Jack Draper pulling off a win against Thanassi Kokkonassis, and Daniel Evans beating Alex de Minaur, but the Aussies won the doubles) in Manchester on an indoor court. (Whither Joe Salisbury, though?)
As the British matches were being shown on iPlayer, I started catching up with the matches against Switzerland on Friday. Well, I’ll be honest, I watched the first set of Murray against a raw 21-year-old Leandro Rinidi who was a good junior but has mainly played in challengers so far. According to ranking (and experience), Murray should have it, although he’d been practising expecting to play a left hander and was surprised by Rinidi’s selection.
An epic first game on Murray’s serve, which he won, and then he was up 5-2 with set points, couldn’t convert, and then it became an epic set that the young Swiss won in the tiebreak. I fast forwarded a lot through the next two sets, where Murray gritted it out and exposed his opponent’s weak defence.
But learning that Murray was playing instead of attending his grandmother’s funeral was quite something.
Next was Cameron Norrie, higher ranked, but not in great form recently, against Stan Wawrinka, who has got himself to no. 40 and has had a better summer (and, obviously, career), which I thought would be tricky. I would say it was close up until 5-5, when Wawrinka reeled off three aces and then injected pace into enough shots to break serve, winning the first set 7-5.
Norrie didn’t lose his head and broke to make it 2-1, extending the rallies to suit himself until he played a few shaky points. Wawrinka took advantage and wrested the momentum back, winning in two sets and making himself available for the doubles match.
He’d be playing with Stricker (also a young one, and apparently the player who booted Tsitsipas out of the US Open, so although I thought that Switzerland were the weakest team in the group, they may have decent prospects once 38-year-old Wawrinka finally gives up.) But Dan Evans and Neal Skupski were teaming up again for GB, and the ‘again’ was clear in their play. That and that Skupski is a top-class doubles specialist and Evans has few problems at the net. They were up for it and clearly knew what they were doing, breaking in the first, then breaking in the second set and very rarely troubled on serve.
GB, France or Australia could still qualify from the group (they showed highlights of Australia v. France and it looked like very entertaining tennis) and I wondered who exactly GB would put out on Sunday.
Sunday came, and I started watching the GB v France day about half an hour late. Apparently Australia had qualified by beating Switzerland (despite Wawrinka, the weakest country in the group), meaning whoever won this tie would qualify (for the quarter finals at Malaga.) First up was Dan Evans against Arthur Fils, 19 years old, (Mannarino, who Evans was expecting to play, may have been injured.) And the teenager gave a very good account of himself in the first set, being pretty calm in one of the biggest matches of his tennis life so far and thus able to hit big. Evans was clearly uncomfortable, lost the first set and was down 2-0 in the second, when he held and started to settle. I watched most of his fightback to win in three. Fils has put down a marker as one to watch.
I raised my eyebrows at Norrie being put next to play. He’d face Ugo Humbert, and to be honest, I fast-forwarded through it. At least he pushed it to three sets!?
Which meant it was 1-1 and down to the doubles. Evans returned to team up with Neal Skupski, and I learned that Mahut and Vasselin aren’t such an established doubles team as all that, although both of them, especially Mahut, are very accomplished doubles players. (And they have a combined age of 80, with Vasselin having 20 years on Fils, and Mahut 22.)
Anyway, after the settler of the first game, the French team were brilliant, playing dynamic, attacking tennis, giving the Brits nothing on their serve, and breaking theirs to win the first set 6-1. Ouch. I paid close attention to the start of the second, and although the British duo held serve, the Frenchmen’s quality didn’t drop, so it went to a tiebreak, which the Brits won.
I didn’t watch the third set at all closely (I was tired, it must have been an emotional marathon for all there), but apparently the French had three match points on Evans’s serve and another on Skupski’s, which they failed to convert (or were stopped from converting) so it went to a tiebreak (which I actually watched on Monday morning.) This was full of minibreaks, reversed, and yet the Brits had match point, lost it, then another one, and took it. The British players and Leon Smith shamelessly (desperately) tried to use their home advantage, and somehow it helped them over. Dan Evans, the MVP of the British team, must have collapsed in exhaustion once the adrenaline wore off.
So, they make it to Malaga, where they will face either Italy or Serbia (eek, as Djokovic turned up for this tie and will probably for the next). Spain, embarrassingly, didn’t make it through, and Finland shocked by beating the US to qualify.
As the British matches were being shown on iPlayer, I started catching up with the matches against Switzerland on Friday. Well, I’ll be honest, I watched the first set of Murray against a raw 21-year-old Leandro Rinidi who was a good junior but has mainly played in challengers so far. According to ranking (and experience), Murray should have it, although he’d been practising expecting to play a left hander and was surprised by Rinidi’s selection.
An epic first game on Murray’s serve, which he won, and then he was up 5-2 with set points, couldn’t convert, and then it became an epic set that the young Swiss won in the tiebreak. I fast forwarded a lot through the next two sets, where Murray gritted it out and exposed his opponent’s weak defence.
But learning that Murray was playing instead of attending his grandmother’s funeral was quite something.
Next was Cameron Norrie, higher ranked, but not in great form recently, against Stan Wawrinka, who has got himself to no. 40 and has had a better summer (and, obviously, career), which I thought would be tricky. I would say it was close up until 5-5, when Wawrinka reeled off three aces and then injected pace into enough shots to break serve, winning the first set 7-5.
Norrie didn’t lose his head and broke to make it 2-1, extending the rallies to suit himself until he played a few shaky points. Wawrinka took advantage and wrested the momentum back, winning in two sets and making himself available for the doubles match.
He’d be playing with Stricker (also a young one, and apparently the player who booted Tsitsipas out of the US Open, so although I thought that Switzerland were the weakest team in the group, they may have decent prospects once 38-year-old Wawrinka finally gives up.) But Dan Evans and Neal Skupski were teaming up again for GB, and the ‘again’ was clear in their play. That and that Skupski is a top-class doubles specialist and Evans has few problems at the net. They were up for it and clearly knew what they were doing, breaking in the first, then breaking in the second set and very rarely troubled on serve.
GB, France or Australia could still qualify from the group (they showed highlights of Australia v. France and it looked like very entertaining tennis) and I wondered who exactly GB would put out on Sunday.
Sunday came, and I started watching the GB v France day about half an hour late. Apparently Australia had qualified by beating Switzerland (despite Wawrinka, the weakest country in the group), meaning whoever won this tie would qualify (for the quarter finals at Malaga.) First up was Dan Evans against Arthur Fils, 19 years old, (Mannarino, who Evans was expecting to play, may have been injured.) And the teenager gave a very good account of himself in the first set, being pretty calm in one of the biggest matches of his tennis life so far and thus able to hit big. Evans was clearly uncomfortable, lost the first set and was down 2-0 in the second, when he held and started to settle. I watched most of his fightback to win in three. Fils has put down a marker as one to watch.
I raised my eyebrows at Norrie being put next to play. He’d face Ugo Humbert, and to be honest, I fast-forwarded through it. At least he pushed it to three sets!?
Which meant it was 1-1 and down to the doubles. Evans returned to team up with Neal Skupski, and I learned that Mahut and Vasselin aren’t such an established doubles team as all that, although both of them, especially Mahut, are very accomplished doubles players. (And they have a combined age of 80, with Vasselin having 20 years on Fils, and Mahut 22.)
Anyway, after the settler of the first game, the French team were brilliant, playing dynamic, attacking tennis, giving the Brits nothing on their serve, and breaking theirs to win the first set 6-1. Ouch. I paid close attention to the start of the second, and although the British duo held serve, the Frenchmen’s quality didn’t drop, so it went to a tiebreak, which the Brits won.
I didn’t watch the third set at all closely (I was tired, it must have been an emotional marathon for all there), but apparently the French had three match points on Evans’s serve and another on Skupski’s, which they failed to convert (or were stopped from converting) so it went to a tiebreak (which I actually watched on Monday morning.) This was full of minibreaks, reversed, and yet the Brits had match point, lost it, then another one, and took it. The British players and Leon Smith shamelessly (desperately) tried to use their home advantage, and somehow it helped them over. Dan Evans, the MVP of the British team, must have collapsed in exhaustion once the adrenaline wore off.
So, they make it to Malaga, where they will face either Italy or Serbia (eek, as Djokovic turned up for this tie and will probably for the next). Spain, embarrassingly, didn’t make it through, and Finland shocked by beating the US to qualify.
