Roger Federer is a pretty good little tennis player, but he's no Nicolas Lapentti.
If you overheard someone make that remark on the subway or in a washroom, you'd probably think, "This guy's got a screw loose." But that's one of the beauties of the Davis Cup competition, which, despite the massive conspiracy of sports editors and broadcasters in the U.S. (some of the same guys who go gaga over World Cup soccer, now that kickball is so popular) is a flat-out fantastic event.
In what other configuration can you imagine Andy Murray and Federer being worlds and fortunes apart? Yet there was Roger Federer this past Sunday in Genoa, Italy, clinching a berth for Switzerland in next year's Davis Cup World Group before a raucous Italian crowd.
And there was Murray in Liverpool, chin in hand, utterly bummed out as he watched his own squad, Great Britain, go down to Poland in a tie that dropped Britain down to the third rung of the Davis Cup ladder. (The elite World Group consists of 16 nations, below which are Group I and Group II levels; the nations commute up and down in these leagues much like soccer squads struggling to make or stay in their respective divisions.)
In other words, Federer was playing Wimbledon, Murray was stuck in the Futures event in Wichita Falls. Team competition isn't always the beautiful thing it's made out to be, at least not when nobody else on your team can play.
Federer used to be like Murray. He'd put on that scarlet jacket with the big white cross on the back, do his job (winning matches), and then watch in horror as his ham-fisted teammates made a hash of the tie. He got real, though, and said, To heck with this, why don't I just focus on winning, oh, 15 or 16 Grand Slam singles titles?
But Federer is in a different position today: The Swiss have a strong No. 2 singles player in Stan Wawrinka, who'll be coming off a very strong 2009 next year. And they have a couple of guys who could be part of a winning doubles team, particularly if they're teamed with Federer.
That's one of the great aspects of Davis Cup: A lone warrior or superstar can't get the job done single-handedly, but he can come awfully close. It's a form of torture for a guy like Murray or Federer.
Heck, even an off-the-radar, 33-year-old former top-10 player like Nicolas Lapentti can come excruciatingly close to closing the deal, as we saw in the Ecuador-Brazil tie (like the Swiss, the teams were battling for one of the coveted World Group slots). This time, Lapentti received that wee bit of help without which his ironman effort would have gone to waste (Lapentti, despite his age, played two singles and the doubles). Lapentti's kid brother, Giovanni, stepped up and helped Nicolas win a doubles tug-of-war in five sets and thus Ecuador has made it back into the World Group for the first time since 2000.
It's a glorious event, this Davis Cup, and Federer appears to have jumped back on the bandwagon now that someone (Wawrinka) has his back. Federer said, "I truly enjoy playing for my country, but I'll also have to see where I have my priorities for next season. Of course, there are the Grand Slams, but there is also No. 1 [in the world], which is a bit of a dilemma."
The dilemma comes in the form of the four weeks required by Davis Cup duty, for a squad that makes the finals or wins.
Federer has no real holes in his résumé, because no man can win the Davis Cup on his own. But the fact that he's never been on a winning team is a pity. The Swiss have a legitimate chance to go far in the competition in 2010, with a good chance to play a number of matches at home. This may be a window of opportunity for Federer, although he could be forgiven for saying "no thanks" to yet another daunting mission.
I say go for it, Fed. You can always add a couple of Wimbledon titles and a few more U.S. Opens later, maybe when you get to be Nico Lapentti's age.
Peter Bodo
