http://www.daviscup.com/news/newsarticle.asp?articleid=14558
Berdych and Stepanek seek new glory
It’s hard to believe that a proud nation such as the Czech Republic has only once been in a Davis Cup semifinal. True, it has only been in existence since 1993, and its predecessor nation Czechoslovakia was a powerhouse in the first two decades of ‘open tennis’, winning the cup in 1980. But apart from Petr Korda and Daniel Vacek’s run to the semis in 1996, when they beat the USA but then lost at home to Sweden, the Czechs haven’t made the last four.
Could that be about to change? Certainly the Czechs take their strongest side since 1996 to Moscow, with Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek likely to play on all three days of their Davis Cup by BNP Paribas quarterfinal against Russia, but ask the two players about it, and you get the same answer: “Tough!”
No argument about that. Russia has not lost a Davis Cup tie at home since Pete Sampras engineered a historic victory at the vast Olympic indoor stadium in 1995, despite being dragged off the court with cramps at the end of one his opening day’s singles. This tie will be played at the much smaller Luzhniki Stadium which only holds 6480 spectators on a clay court which will test the adjustment of the players involved, all of whom are coming from the hard courts of the ATP Masters Series tournament in Miami.
Nikolay Davydenko seems a shoo-in to play, having won the Miami title beating Rafael Nadal in a straight sets final, but Davydenko knows better than to assume his dazzling recent form will automatically earn him a singles berth. Nineteen months ago, Russia’s captain Shamil Tarpischev dropped Davydenko to the bench for a semifinal against the USA because the player had just flown in from Beijing. As he made a poor adjustment from hard to clay in last year’s quarterfinal, losing in the same Luzhniki arena to France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu, his place could well go to Igor Andreev, one of the best claycourters on today’s circuit.
Berdych, for his part, was involved in the Miami semifinal and spoke afterwards about the difficulty of adjusting from one continent to another. “It’s going to be really tough,” said the softly spoken 22-year-old. “Especially for me to get from here to home in Europe and then on to Russia, it’s not going to be easy. The atmosphere is going to be different, too. It’s going to be a team match, so I’m looking forward to that. I like all Davis Cup ties.”
Berdych immediately picked up on the difference between the two squads. “They have a lot of options,” he said. “For us, we have just two really good singles players and then it depends on the doubles. But they can put four or five players into their team, and whoever is feeling better, has better form, he can play.” Russia’s players also have relatively good records against Berdych and Stepanek.
Stepanek broke off from a cosy encounter with his girlfriend Nicole Vaidisova on a couch in the players’ lounge at Key Biscayne to concentrate briefly on Davis Cup matters. “Yes, of course, it’s going to be tough,” he said. “Our record against them is not so good. But we are a united team – I would not be playing if we were not – and we will give it our best shot.”
Stepanek was still seven years away from being born when the most unforgettable encounter between the two teams’ predecessors, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, took place in 1971 at the tennis club in Prague.
Apart from one ice hockey match, it had been the first time since Soviet tanks had rolled into Prague in 1968 that the Czechoslovak people had been able, legally, to vent their anger at their oppressors – and they made the most of it. The venue was overflowing with Czechs yelling abuse at poor Alex Metreveli and his colleagues. Trains, which passed on an elevated railway right at the back of the Centre Court, stopped momentarily, the drivers blowing their whistles and the passengers hanging out of the windows with clenched fists. Asked if he knew about it, Stepanek replied: “Yes, people have told me about it, it must have been incredible.”
It was. And if Metreveli and his colleagues found it hard to take – they were laughed at and spat upon.
The Czechoslovak No 1, Jan Kodes, was under pressure of a different kind. Kodes had won Roland Garros the week before and was physically and mentally exhausted. “But I have to win,” he said. “For the nation, I just have to win both my singles – I cannot possibly lose. They will kill me.” Kodes won, the Czechoslovak team won, and the Soviets crept home with their tails between their legs.
That was one of four victories for the Czechs against either the Soviet Union or Russia but they have lost four, too, so this upcoming duel will break the tie one way or the other. It might lack the political overtones of that encounter 37 years ago – and will be no the worse for that – but it should produce some fascinating clay court tennis.
