Davis Cup Quarterfinal: The United States v France

What a shame. In true Mohammed-Ali style, 13th-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France fired up the Davis Cup tie between the United States and France with some good, old fashioned jive about us Americans "fearing" the French.

Now he has gone home with a knee injury the French Tennis Federation announced yesterday.

That wasn't really such a blow, as Tsonga's runner-up finish at the Australian Open is his only great achievement to date. But he was arguably France's best chance in singles on a fast court.

Tsonga was replaced with Arnaud Clement, and at that point, the best guess was that France would have Richard Gasquet and Paul-Henri Mathieu play singles with Clement and Michael Llodra teaming up to play doubles.

But now 8th-ranked Richard Gasquet has blisters, so he's out too.

The quarterfinal tie begins Friday and runs to Sunday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Here's the lineup as it now stands:

Friday
Andy Roddick (USA - 6th ranked) v Michael Llodra (FRA - ranked 41)
James Blake (USA - 8th ranked) v Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA - 12th ranked)

Saturday
Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan (USA) v Arnaud Clement (ranked 70) /Michael Llodra (FRA)

Sunday
Andy Roddick (USA) v Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)
James Blake (USA) v Michael Llodra (FRA)

See also:
"The Americans will fear us."
Davis Cup Dialog

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Davis Cup Roster

The Davis Cup quarterfinal tie between the United States and France will take place April 11-13 at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The French Davis Cup captain, Guy Forget, has announced his roster:
Richard Gasquet
Paul-Henri Mathieu (either singles or doubles)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Michael Llodra (doubles for sure)

Mathieu replaces Arnaud Clement, who was on the French squad that beat host Romania, 5-0, in the Davis Cup opening round in February.

The American Davis Cup captain, Patrick McEnroe, will use the same lineup that won the Davis Cup last year:

No. 1 singles starter Andy Roddick
No. 2 singles starter James Blake
Doubles players Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan

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Davis Cup Dialog

I was actually hoping some French blogger (whose English is much better than my French) would take up the gauntlet I threw down yesterday.

Come on, this ketchup loving hamberger monkey can take it. How about a little of that "dialog"?

(We can't leave it to Andy Roddick. He has no sense of humor.)

CLICK

Arise, children of the Motherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us, tyranny's
Bloody banner is raised.
Bloody banner is raised.
Do you hear in the countryside
The braying of these ferocious soldiers?
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of our sons, our wives!

To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions!
March, march!
May their filthy blood
Water our fields!
To arms, citizens!
Let us form our battalions!
Let us march, let us march!
May their filthy blood
Water our fields!

Sacred patriotic love,
Lead and support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished liberty,
Fight back with your defenders!
Fight back with your defenders!
Under our flags, let victory
Hurry to your manly tone,
So that our enemies, in their last breath,
See your triumph and our glory!

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"The Americans will fear us."

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga really said that, in reference to the upcoming Davis Cup tie here next month between the United States and France.

Oooh, la la. This could be fun.

FEAR??? FEAR???

Ha! CLICK.

You asked for it!



And unless you really wanna ruin your day...

DON'T CLICK THIS LINK!

Note: The first time through the video, the sound might not be in sync, but once the sound all loads, you can replay to hear and see it right.

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Australian Open: Djokovic defeats Tsonga for the Title

The No. 3 seed, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, won the Australian Open men's singles title by defeating unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(2).

Djokovic dropped just one set en route to the title. He hit 46 winners and 11 aces in the final.

I feel kind of relieved. I've played at least the semi-finals in every Grand Slam in the last year. I was pretty close in the US Open, so probably today I was a bit nervous at the start 'cause I found myself in the strange situation: that I am the favorite in the finals of a Grand Slam, which is not usual for me. So it was dangerous, but I managed to cope with the pressure well and to win... It's probably indescribable feeling, something that I always dreamed of... I think every player dreams about winning a Grand Slam. For everybody who wins a Grand Slam, you have to give them a lot of appreciation and respect. I just felt it now... Hopefully in the future I'm gonna feel it more.

The title solidified Djokovic's world No. 3 ranking. His performance in the tournament boosted Tsonga from No. 38 to 18.


Throughout the tournament, Tsonga defeated three top-10 players and served 100 aces, more than any other player.

Not everybody can beat the players who I beat, so to beat them gives me a lot of confidence. ...I'm very proud of myself. I'm happy for Novak, because he played unbelievable today. I don't know if I have to be sad or happy of this final, but I feel great. It's just unbelievable because the crowd was unbelievable. A lot of noise and everything. I had goose bumps. It was crazy.

This was the first slam of the Open era in which no American - in singles or doubles - made it past the quarterfinals.

It was also the first slam since the Australian Open 2005 in which the men's singles not won by Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.

Speaking of... via the BBC:

Despite his victory, the world number three [Djokovic] does not expect an immediate changing of the guard and the imminent demise of number one Roger Federer.

No kiddin'.

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Australian Open: Unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga destroys Rafael Nadal to Reach the Final!

6-2, 6-3, 6-2. Less than two hours. 'Nuff said.

In that short match, Tsonga hit 49 winners, 17 aces and broke Nadal's serve five times.

Nadal:

He played better than me, and for that reason he beat me. His running was unbelievable, physically he was very explosive, everything. What I can say? There was nothing bad about his game.

A few days ago I thought about a post contesting the proposition that France is about to dominate the tennis world. Not on the grounds that France doesn't have a whole passel of great tennis players, but on the grounds that none seem to have that "fire in the belly" of a great champion.

I think maybe I was wrong!

Hey, you gotta like a guy who looks so much like "the greatest and the prettiest," don't you?


Tsonga is ranked 38th in the world and eliminated Andy Murray, Richard Gasquet, and Mikhail Youzhny before doing his thing to Rafael Nadal today. He will face either world number one Roger Federer or third seed Novak Djokovic (who play on Friday) in the final on Sunday.

Nina Rota over at Tennis Diary has a nice piece on Tsonga's game: Is Tsonga Only a Serve and Volleyer?

Judging by his defeat of Andy Murray in the first round, you'd probably say so. Especially when he's so successful at charging the net like that on a relatively slow hardcourt. Indeed, his friend and compatriot, Richard Gasquet, who knows Tsonga's game well, felt compelled to do the attacking himself. Taking the net to keep it away from Tsonga? No matter, Tsonga won from the baseline, looking like Federer beating Gasquet from there.

So, it appears that we may have something new here, a truly all-court player.

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Australian Open: One Week Down

Great tennis Down Under!

Craig Hickman has a nice post that sums up the spirit of battle bewteen Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis, which ended a 4:30 AM with Lleyton winning 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7, 6-3.

Marathon men. That's what they are. More than four-and-a-half hours. Two titanic chokes. An ankle injury. Five match points. Unruly fans. Weary ball kids. Blind linespeople. Delirious commentators.

Read the rest: Day 6 Epilog.

Hey, toldja Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France is for real!



Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams advanced to the quarterfinals.

In the men's doubles, Bob and Mike Bryan have reached the quarterfinals, along with Jonathan Erlich - Andy Ram, Martin Damm - Pavel Vizner, Arnaud Clement - Michael Llodra, and Daniel Nestor - Nenad Zimonjic.

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Australian Open Buzz

As play gets underway on Day 6 (Saturday), the big news is the fall of Svetlana Kutnetsova to Agnieszka Radwanksa of Poland.


Kuznetsova
The big news of the day on this side of the International Date Line was Philipp Kolhschreiber defeating Andy Roddick in what has been billed "a thriller," 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, 8-6.

Sean Randall at the X-Blog writes:

Time and time again we’ve seen Andy hit his backhand reply crosscourt, and in this case that very response goes right into Kolhschreiber’s preferred weapon of choice. That’s why I gave the German a chance in this match. Until Andy can make a serious impression with his backhand down the line shot, he’s going to keep struggling with guys like Kohlschrieber, Richard Gasquet, Tommy Haas and Roger Federer who can consistently fire winners off that backhand wing.

Kohlschreiber also made liberal use of an excellent dropshot, which I don’t recall him ever really missing. Again, a great tactic by the 24-year-old since Roddick was perched around the “Melbourne” lettering, which looks to be about four feet behind the baseline on Rod Laver.

That backhand isn't just a problem when Andy is pinned behind the baseline. Hitting approach shots crosscourt is another one of his problems, because it makes him easier to pass.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's performance so far isn't such a big surprise. Some were picking him as a dark horse before the tournament began.

Peter Bodo over at Tennis World writes:

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga - JoWilly has now played three fine matches in a row, which could be a personal best. Did you see how his beaten opponent Guillermo Garcia-Lopez quit at the end of that match, even though he was dressed in some weird all-red costume that, presumably, was supposed to suggest aggression and passion? JoWilly fears no man - least of all some sympathy dude with a hyphenated name who appears to be angling for a contract with Red Hots candy. JoWilly plays Reeshard Gasquet next - unless Reeshard comes down with a sniffle or hangnail or something and calls it off. You can take all that "Baby Federer" stuff and stick it, as far as I'm concerned. I prefer JoWilly's game.

It's an all-out attack style game, something rarely seen these days. I like it too.

We saw Pete Sampras's attacking game take a match off Roger Federer recently. I think the reason players like Andy Roddick have tough luck with it is because they don't have good enough approach shots, not because rackets today have made the attacking game too difficult. You won't get by with so-so approach shots as you could in the past. Gone are the days when you could get by with crosscourt approach shots, when you could blindly follow conventional wisdom and just push every approach with underspin, thus missing quite a few and having many more land a bit short.

For more on that great match between Marat Safin and Marcos Baghdatis, hop over to the Tennis Diary, where Nina Rota has an interesting take on it.

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