"From Russia Without Love"

Well, they tried. You have to give them that, they tried with everything they had. Unfortunately what we didn't have is a clay court player.The United States team came up short against Russia in the semis of Davis Cup falling by the score of 3-2. Andy Roddick lost an epic match against Dmitry Tursunov coming back from two sets down before falling 17-15 in the fifth set to put the US behind by 3-1 before James Blake defeated Marat Safin in a meaningless fifth rubber. For all the grass court and hard court prowess of Roddick and Blake they remain just that, grass and hard court players. We don't have a "go to" guy when it comes to the slow red clay that the European countries will without fail use when it comes to a Davis Cup tie on foreign soil. For all the improvement Roddick showed in reaching the US Open final he still looks totally lost on the clay. Against Marat Safin in the opener he looked like he was always a half step out of position or a step slow to the ball. Against Tursunov he played one of the better clay court matches of his career but came up just a little short. Blake was simply outplayed in the second rubber against Mikhail Youzhny who was ripping winners from all corners of the court. You wouldn't think that Youzhny could play much better than in his match against Rafeal Nadal at the Open but against Blake he was unreal. So what do we do? The doubles point is a virtual lock in every tie that the US plays since we have the top ranked doubles team in the world in the Bryan brothers. On carpet, grass or hard court we would be favored with Roddick and Blake. On the red clay we're going to have to hope that whomever we put out there in singles will play the match of their lives. Twice.

Hopefully, no one reading this will read into it something that isn't there. There is no "bigotry" in saying that Blake was outplayed. There is no "malice" in stating that Roddick looked a step slow. There are no "cruel intentions" in saying we were outplayed. It's a column, people, written by someone who thinks that you should have the right to your own opinion. So if you don't agree with mine, that's OK by me. Keep sending me your emails vilifying me and I'll keep sending you a reply. Just like it should be.