One Man a Team Does Not Make
The recent Davis Cup ties illustrated that Davis Cup is a team sport and one man can rarely carry a entire team to victory. Dominant World Number One, Roger Federer, won both his singles matches, but lost his doubles match. His teammate lost the other singles matches and as a result, Switzerland lost the tie and will not be in the 2008 Davis Cup World Group for first time in years. In Serbia, Australian team leader and former Number
One, Lleyton Hewitt, came down with a virus on the middle Saturday of the tie and couldn't play his second singles match on Sunday. As a result, the Australian Davis Cup team lost to the Serbian team led by Novak Djokovic who managed to contribute to the three Serbian wins during the tie. Meanwhile, the United States fielded its "A team," i.e. Andy Roddick, James Blake and the Bryan Brothers, and advanced to the Davis Cup finals. The U.S. will face a Russian Davis Cup team with significant depth and versatility which allowed it to overcome a surprising doubles loss against Germany and advance to the Davis Cup finals. The extra pressure of playing for your country coupled with the physical challenge of playing three matches in three days, i.e. two three out of five set singles and one doubles match, makes it very difficult for one player to carry an entire team.
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