Team In-Fighting, Fastest-ever Serve, Court Controversy: U.S. vs Aussie Davis Cup Had It All
From the fastest serve ever to a court controversy to players throwing each other under the bus, this past weekend’s Davis Cup tie between the U.S. and Australia had it all, including a U.S. win.
John Isner defeated Australia’s Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(4) in the first match on Sunday to clinch the tie 3-1, advancing the U.S. into the quarterfinals where they will host Croatia. On Saturday the Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, had put the U.S. up 2-1 after a thrilling five-set win over Aussie captain Lleyton Hewitt and John Peers.
“It was a great atmosphere. Obviously Lleyton being on the court even notched it up a level,” Bob Bryan said afterwards. “When they won the fourth [set] it was pretty darn loud and I just thought we did a great job of regrouping…I’ve got to credit Mike for stepping up, he became a new guy in the fifth and hit a couple of great returns to get that early break which was everything and we held on tight.”
Hewitt replaced an ill Nick Kyrgios on the Aussie team. As Tomic was in the midst of losing the decisive match to Isner he let loose on captain Hewitt, claiming Kyrgios had faked his illness to miss the tie, and followed up his comments in his post-match interview.
“[Kyrgios] didn’t come to Czech [Republic, last year] and had stress fractures and somehow played Indian Wells and felt good,” Tomic said. “If he plays Indian Wells, then he’s definitely lost a little bit of my respect.”
Isner in his opening match on Friday against Sam Groth delivered a 157 mph (253 km/h) serve, which is a new record in Davis Cup and on the ATP World Tour, eclipsing the former 156 mph record by Ivo Karlovic.
While Australia would normally have choice of surface as the home team (which they did, choosing grass), both teams forgot that the surface should have been a neutral hard court due to an event 17 years ago. The last time the two teams met, in 1999, the ITF moved the Aussie tie to the Longwood Cricket Club near Boston to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Davis Cup. The surface was changed from clay to hard at the request of Australia, with an agreement that the next time the teams played, the surface would also be hard court.
The Davis Cup quarterfinals match-ups on July 15-17 will be Serbia hosting Great Britain, Italy hosting Argentina, the Czech Republic hosting France, and the U.S. hosting Croatia at a site and on a surface to be determined.
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