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Russia up 2-0 on US in Davis Cup
MOSCOW - In order to advance to the finals of the Davis Cup, the United States will have to mount its biggest comeback in more than 70 years. Andy Roddick and James Blake lost their singles matches Friday at the Davis Cup, handing the U.S. team a 2-0 deficit against Russia in the semifinal. Roddick lost to Marat Safin 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the opening match and Blake fell to Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, 7-5. Russia can clinch the best-of-five series Saturday with a victory in the doubles. The last time the United States came back from a 2-0 Davis Cup deficit was in 1934 against Australia. "Obviously, our backs are against the wall," U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe said. "I believe in these guys. I think they can play well on clay." The winner will face either Australia or Argentina in the final in December. Bob and Mike Bryan, the world's top doubles team, will play for the United States. Youzhny and Dmitry Tursunov are scheduled to play for Russia, though the pairings can be changed up to an hour before the match. The loss was only the eighth in 21 Davis Cup matches for Roddick, while Safin improved to 25-14. "One of the good things about the Davis Cup is in most other tournaments you don't get a second chance," Roddick said. "Here you do, and hopefully I'll be able to capitalize on that opportunity." Roddick and Safin had played five times before — all on hard courts — with the American winning the last three in 2004. But this match was played on clay at the Olympic indoor stadium. "We know each other pretty well," Safin said. "I know he's not confident on clay. It would have been different on a hard court." Roddick opened strongly, allowing Safin only one point on the American's first three service games. But in the seventh game, Safin earned two break points with a backhand passing shot, and converted on the first. The Russian saved a break point in the next game before holding to close out the set. Roddick tried to change tactics in the second set and play serve-and-volley, but it didn't make much difference on the clay court. Roddick saved three break points in the third game of the second set and one more in the fifth before Safin ended the match's longest rally — 26 shots — with a lob to break serve. Safin and Roddick exchanged breaks late in the third set to force a tiebreaker. Down 2-5, Safin won five straight points to end the match. In the second match, Blake broke Youzhny in the second game, but the Russian capitalized on the American's two double faults in the seventh game to break back and got another break to take the first set. Blake leveled the match in the second set with a strong serve-and-volley game. But he faded in the third, winning only one point in the last four games. "Blake softened up his game and I speeded up mine," Youzhny said. The fourth set opened with an exchange of breaks, then stayed on serve until Youzhny broke Blake in the 11th game with a volley winner. "I was definitely disappointed in the way I returned, because I didn't think he was serving well ... I've got to learn from this," Blake said. Safin, who has missed much of the season with a knee injury, was picked by Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev ahead of fifth-ranked clay-court specialist Nikolay Davydenko. Safin said he was confident he could have won if the match had gone into a fourth set, but "I was pretty lucky that (Roddick) missed some of his first serves" in the tiebreaker.
