Friends forever
http://www.daviscup.com/news/newsarticle.asp?id=13806
Friends forever: a US Davis Cup squad that’s a real team
Until recently, the American Davis Cup team, win or lose, would usually
be comprised of talented individuals brought together, who didn't always
appear to get the concept of being a team. But those days are gone, now
that Andy Roddick, James Blake, and Bob and Mike Bryan have not only been
joined as Davis Cup teammates, but have also become the best of buddies.
Can USA end an 11-year drought?
Having embraced the team concept, Roddick, Blake and the Bryans are in
pursuit of a greater mission they would dearly love to accomplish – to
make their friendship bring out the best in them, so they can bring the
Davis Cup by BNP Paribas home to the USA for the first time since 1995.
That team spirit built on friendship faces a stiff test in the Americans'
away semifinal in Moscow’s Olympic Stadium, where they face a star-studded
Russian squad. Yet a positive omen is that the last time a Yankee squad won
the Davis Cup was, yes, in the Olympic Stadium in Moscow 11 years ago.
An American team that has gelled
The United States has not lacked some very loyal players dedicated to the
Davis Cup cause. Andre Agassi played 22 ties between 1988 and 2005, finishing
on two winning teams. John McEnroe, a guy who loved team sports and grew up
playing soccer, holds the record for most ties played for the United States
at 30, and the most Davis Cup singles wins for an American at 41-8. He was
on the winning side in five finals.
But those guys and others weren’t always part of a coherent unit. One would
have to look back to Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith and Bob Lutz – all players who
experienced the team concept at university – to find a close-knit team feeling
in the American Davis Cup camp.
Now that sense of camaraderie is alive and well again, and according to the
players, history is the reason why they have gelled together as a team.
Roddick, Blake and the Bryans started out together
“I don’t think it hurts there’s a history with all the guys on the team,”
said Roddick, who lost to Roger Federer in the US Open final. “I've known
Bob and Mike since I was eight. I probably knew James least when I got on
tour, but we’ve become good friends as well. We have the same interests.
We all kind of are on the same page.”
“We grew up playing Challengers together,” added Blake, a quarterfinalist
at the US Open. “I started around the same time Andy was starting, same
time the Bryans were still playing singles.
“I played Mike in one of my first Futures in Waco, Texas, I believe. You
don't have press conferences in Waco. You don’t have huge prize money checks.
You don’t have great places to go to dinner. You get to know people when
you're on the Futures and Challenger tours.
“So we all got to know each other that way. At that point you're not fighting
for Davis Cup positions. You’re not fighting for Grand Slams. You're fighting
for an extra $500 and maybe get the bump up to first-class on your next flight
or something.
“You're actually becoming friends with these people and you're actually
cheering for them. You’re even staying in the same room as some of them.
We built that bond. For me, it seemed like, okay, this bond isn’t going
to change with money, with titles, anything like that. It’s not going to
change the fact that we’re friends. We became friends first.”
Not just a team on Davis Cup weekends
And as all of the players are careful to point out, their friendship definitely
extends past Davis Cup weeks. “It’s great team spirit," says Bob Bryan.
“We’re always laughing and joking together. We’re all truly very supportive
of each other and there’s no competitiveness between us.”
“We go out together. And we spend a lot of time at each other's houses.
We've spent a few weeks at Andy’s house in Texas, and Mike and I just bought
a house in Tampa near James and Mardy [Fish] to be closer to them and so we
can all practise together.”
As far as the US captain Patrick McEnroe is concerned, the solidarity between
the players has made his job much easier. He knows he’s got a solid group of
players, as well as a couple of reserves in Fish and Robby Ginepri, who will
not only get along but consider themselves all friends.
“I did just luck out,” said McEnroe, of the Roddick, Blake and Bryan brigade.
“The guys are great. They genuinely look forward to the Davis Cup weeks.
Andy is definitely the jokester; he likes to pull my pants down so I have
to make sure I tie my string real tight on my sweat pants. James is the
Harvard guy, so likes to be the smart one – he reminds Andy that he barely
graduated from high school. And the Bryans, they're the Bryans, they're the
twins. We call them one and the same, the two of them together.”
好喜歡他們這種團隊氣氛，雖然美國球員在紅土上...
但是拿出團隊精神來！！！GO!GO!GO!
GO TEAM USA！！！
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09/20 20:45, , 1F
09/20 20:45, 1F