Owing Janko

by Pete Bodo

Howdy. I'm hoping to talk with a very jet-lagged Patrick McEnroe sometime later today, regarding this weekend's U.S. at Colombia tie in which Mardy Fish became the first American since Pete Sampras to win three rubbers for his team. Pistol Pete did it in 1995, in Moscow, on clay, and the quality of his opposition certainly was higher. He had to beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a Grand Slam champion and Top 5 player, as well as Andrei Chesnakov, a Top 10 player and very tough clay-court combatant.

Nevertheless, Fish's performance was inspired. He played two five-set matches on red clay, with a four-set doubles sandwiched in there, in three days. He clinched the tie for the U.S. with an 8-6 in the fifth win in the fourth rubber. And he did it under the burden of significant pressure—playing to keep the U.S. up in the elite World Group of Davis Cup. Had the U.S. lost to Colombia, it would have been thrown into the murky pond of the qualifying rounds, with no chance to actually vie for the championship for at least a year.

Fish's heroics constitute a high-water mark for U.S. Davis Cup tennis (let's remember, the tie was played at altitude in Bogota, using weird pressure-less Tretorn balls, on red clay—a surface generally as toxic to Fish as copper mine tailings are to his finny namesakes). But the events that transpired in Belgrade, where the Serbs pulled out a come-from-behind win over the Czech Republic in the World Group semifinals, certainly resonated more volubly across the world stage.

Thus, Janko Tipsarevic joined Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador and a host of comparably unusual suspects as a legitmate Davis Cup hero. Tipsy won both his singles matches, including the critical, decisive fifth rubber of the tie, taking out a pair of players who have been more highly ranked: recent Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych, and Radek Stepanek, whose career-high rank of No. 8 is more than 20 places higher than Tipsarevic's best, No. 33. That latter stat is subject to change, given that Tipsarevic is presently No. 34 and playing perhaps the best tennis of his life.

How can you not love a format that allows someone like Tipsarevic to become a household name, at least in his own nation, on the strength of two matches? He gets to the quarterfinals of Roland Garros, or a Wimbledon semi, and he raises eyebrows. But he secures a tie the way he did on Sunday and they rise champagne glasses to him and never forget his name. It's an earned honor with no caveats ("Too bad he lost in the final, or, he didn't beat a guy ranked above him to win the title).

But let's not forget the set-up man, Novak Djokovic. How many hero moments can one guy expect to produce within a span of less than two weeks? A week ago today, Djokovic played a magnificent final at the U.S. Open, only to lose to Rafael Nadal (see above). Yesterday on an indoor hard court in Belgrade, he overcame a host of potential obstacles, including physical and emotional fatigue and the pressure implicitly put on his angular shoulders by an adoring home crowd, to earn Serbia a chance to host the final against France (which swept Argentina in the other semifinal).

It would have been understandable if Djokovic succumbed to Berdych in the fourth match, especially after Djokovic was unable to lift doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic to a win in what appeared to be the critical doubles rubber. Granted, Berdych has faded with the summer, but leading up to the U.S. Open, he was a more dangerous and successful player than Djokovic (at least on the year). Let's face it, the next best thing to being king is being kingmaker, whch is precisely the role Djokovic enacted. That role calls for a certain amount of selflessness; Djokovic had to know that coming on the heels of his U.S. Open effort, most of the blame for a poor showing in Davis Cup would have been blamed on timing and the nature of the Davis Cup competition, not Djokovic.

Instead, Djokovic sucked it up, absorbed the blows, and fell back on his courage and determination. It wasn't pretty, but it was successful as well as praiseworthy. That Tipsarevic was able to make it all worthwhile had to make Djokovic feel good. He owes Janko now, big-time, and I'm expecting that he'll offer payback when the final rolls around. Serbia is now well-positioned to join the elite group of Davis Cup-winning nations.