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Where EAST meets the Northwest
GAME, SET, MATCH. The Davis Cup, the world’s largest annual team tennis competition, was held in Portland November 30 through December 2. Members of the Russian Men’s Team show their 2007 Davis Cup runner-up trophies to the crowd. (AR Photo/Edward J. Han)
From The Asian Reporter, V17, #50 (December 11, 2007), page 9.
Russia unable to repeat as Davis Cup champions
By Edward J. Han
The Davis Cup, a highly coveted trophy that is vied for under the auspices of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), is the world’s largest annual team-sports competition. This year’s tournament started with teams of men representing 137 different countries. The initial goal for each nation is to make it to the World Group of only 16 teams.
This year’s final of Russia versus the United States of America was hosted in Portland, Oregon the weekend of November 30 through December 2. Russia defeated Chile, France, and Germany to advance to the finals. The Czech Republic, Spain, and Sweden all fell to the U.S. in preliminary rounds.
On Thursday, Russian Captain Shamil Tarpischev surprised many tennis fans by announcing that Nikolay Davydenko, the number four-ranked singles player in the world, would play in the doubles match instead. "The choice … was made for tactical reasons," explained the captain.
The opening match (Singles A) on Friday featured Andy Roddick versus Dmitry Tursunov. A-Rod won handily — 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 — and paved the way for his fellow teammates.
The Singles B match immediately followed and was a four-set thriller between James Blake and Mikhail Youzhny. Blake won the first set 6-3. Youzhny played better in the second set and forced a tiebreaker, but ultimately lost 7-6. The third set was just as close, but this time Mikhail prevailed 7-6 in another tiebreaker. James fought back and won the match after a third consecutive tiebreaker set.
At the end of day one, the United States enjoyed a 2-0 lead going into Saturday’s doubles match.
Bob and Mike Bryan defeated Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko in three straight sets, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2. As the Davis Cup is a best-of-five competition, the victory by the Bryan brothers secured the U.S.’s 32nd title. The last American championship was in 1995, which was also against Russia.
The last time the United States hosted a Davis Cup Final was in 1992. That year the American team defeated Switzerland.
In the first of the two singles matches on Sunday, Bob Bryan lost to Igor Andreev 6-3, 7-6. The initial schedule had Roddick versus Youzhny.
The last match of the weekend pitted James Blake against Dmitry Tursunov. Tursunov won the first set, 6-1. The second set went to Blake, 6-3. Blake also won the third set 7-5, making the final match score 4-1 in favor of the United States.
The first Davis Cup match was played in 1900 between members of the Harvard University tennis team and a British contingent. One of the Harvard team members, Dwight Davis, designed the tournament format and purchased the sterling silver trophy. The Davis Cup is officially named the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy. To learn more, visit <www.daviscup.com>.