Oscar night for Davis Cup
Australia's 82-day Davis Cup celebrations ended in thrilling fashion on Sunday, at the hands of Sweden on a weekend the record serve was beaten and minnows Belarus ruined Russia's World Group aspirations. James Buddell dishes out his awards for a weekend of thrilling tennis.
BEST COACH AWARD
Many Australians supporters had twitched uncomfortably in their chairs when the 2004 Davis Cup first round draw was announced in December.
By the end of a three-day weekend in Adelaide, 28-time champions Australia were left to rue the tactical brilliance of Mats Wilander.
Wilander, Sweden's Davis Cup captain opted to replace Robin Soderling with former world number four Jonas Bjorkman for the first reverse singles rubber.
The decision worked as Bjorkman defeated Mark Philippoussis to give the Scandinavians an unassailable 3-1 lead.
Lleyton Hewitt could only watch from the sidelines, as his beloved Australia became only the seventh defending champions to be eliminated in the opening round since 1972.
SECOND GUESS AWARD
When Marat Safin yawned at the draw on Thursday, Belarus - competing in their 11th year - fancied their chances of an upset against the 2002 champions, Russia.
At 2-2, everybody in the Football Manege in Minsk expected Marat Safin to come out for a routine win over Alexander Shvec.
Russia's captain Shamil Tarpischev had other ideas however, and decided to rest the Australian Open finalist in place of Mikhail Youzhny.
The 2002 hero came out on to the court to face... Valdimir Voltchkov! Who had made a miraculous recovery from an ankle injury sustained on the first day.
From that very moment, the minnows held the psychological advantage and with the support of 4,500 supporters, Belarus secured an historic final rubber victory.
Tarpischev had assumed the Belarusians would prepare something, but the embarrassment of resting his top star will live in the memory as long as the party in the streets of Minsk.
BEST NEWCOMER AWARD
Devoid of big name players: Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moya, Albert Costa and Alex Corretja, last year's finalists Spain selected a side consisting youth and experience.
It is safe to say that the fate of the 2000 champion's lay on the shoulders of 17-year-old Rafael Nadal, who was making his debut as the youngest player in Spain's Davis Cup history.
Tommy Robredo and Feliciano Lopez provided youthful support, as the Armada attempted to comeback from a 2-1 deficit for the tenth time in their history.
This they did with the hotshot of the men's tour sealing Spain's fate in beating Radek Stepanek 7-6 7-6 6-3 for the final rubber and match.
BEST OPENING LINE AWARD
It was bound to happen eventually.
The service record held jointly by Andy Roddick and Greg Rusedski of 149mph was always in danger.
In the eighth game of the second singles rubber on day one, Roddick, the former world number one let rip with 150 miles per hour of fizz.
His opponent Stefan Koubek of Austria was motionless and appeared that way throughout his straight sets defeat.
Barely an hour later the U.S. Open champion equalled his own record and set the pattern for the weekend that left expert commentators questioning hgow the hell Austria had reached the World Group in the first place.
BEST SLANGING MATCH AWARD
How could French Davis Cup captain Guy Forget leave Fabrice Santoro out his first squad of 2004?
After all, the 31-year-old doubles specialist has defended his Australian Open doubles title with compatriot Michael Llodra, five days previously.
Come Sunday evening, the arguments had been resolved and Forget was vindicated for selecting as a team consisting of fashion icon Arnaud Clement, debutant Thierry Ascione, Nicolas Escude and Llodra.
The nine-time champions ran out 4-1 winners over Croatia.
On Monday, the French Tennis Federation announced that they would discuss the comments made by Forget during the first round tie in a meeting on Friday 13th February.
Eurosport - jbuddell@eurosport.co.uk 09/02/2004
http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/V3/L0/S57/E6234/sport_Lng0_Spo57_Evt6234_Sto545334.shtml
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