Federer's Approach To Davis Cup Is Odd!

By Sandra Harwitt

What’s with Roger Federer and some of his baffling decision-making when it comes to Davis Cup?

Yes, I know that this year he had initially intended on representing Switzerland in the Davis Cup first round before a back injury cancelled the outing. But it would be foolhardy not to believe that at the time his demoralizing five-set loss to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final, which left him in tears, didn’t weigh in on the decision.

History has shown that for the most part Roger hasn’t been there at the beginning of the year to help his county try to win the Davis Cup crown. This would not be an outrageous possibility as Roger has great back-up in Stanislas Wawrinka, who not only has ranked top 10 in singles, but has a distinguished record with Roger in doubles, as in picking up the 2008 Olympic gold medal together.

Instead, Roger shows up every year like clockwork after the U.S. Open to help Switzerland keep their spot in the World Group.
Sure, it’s not surprising to understand Roger’s rationale for typically not coming around for the first round as he’s gotten where he is by being a bit selfish. One would have to be to self-oriented to achieve the greatness he’s realized. At the beginning of the year, Roger’s got winning big titles – Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, even the U.S. Open, on his mind. It’s hard to interrupt that single-minded thinking to fit in Davis Cup.

That point taken, it’s hard not to think that Roger’s making a big mistake on this front.

Switzerland reached the final in 1992 where they fell to the United States 3-1 in Fort Worth, Texas. At the time, they had an eager team of Jakob Hlasek and Marc Rosset. But eager wasn’t enough to get past the dream team of Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, with John McEnroe and Pete Sampras taking on the doubles duty.
The great players win Grand Slams and they also have their names etched on the Davis Cup trophies. Roger should have his name on the Davis Cup champion’s roster. Now that Roger has his French Open and has his record 15th Grand Slam titles I am predicting that we will be seeing him play the Davis Cup first-round next year.

Roger’s always been a tennis historian and not putting his best foot forward to represent Switzerland and bring the Cup home would leave something very special off of his resume.
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Word is that we will be hearing from Justine Henin tomorrow that she’s following in Kim Clijsters footsteps and planning to rejoin the tour.

It’s not surprising that Henin might be moved by what Clijsters achieved – two months back on the tour and she beats Venus and Serena Williams to capture her second Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open.

Sometimes a vacation away from the game helps someone realize how much they miss the competition and performing in front of audiences. Although I wouldn’t know myself, I suspect it’s a rush that is hard to duplicate in “real” life.

As the tennis world did with Kim, they will welcome Justine back with warm open arms if she chooses to return to the game.

But I do wonder what Venus and Serena Williams, in particular La Serena with her 10 Grand Slam trophies, are thinking about this turn of events. Let’s face it, in the last year or so, if one or the other of the sisters showed up with winning on their mind, they were not deterred from their goal. The competition just wasn’t strong enough to waylay a determined Serena or Venus.

Will they like that two fabulous athletes who have no fear of them are back on the scene? That’s an interesting question to ponder.
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Note to tennis players” It doesn’t seem prudent to put on your dancing shoes to try and tap your way through reality dance shows.

We now have two former players – Monica Seles went on Dancing With The Stars and was the first voted off, and Martina Hingis just got dumped off of the British version of the show. They tried to tango, but turned out to be flat-footed.

Are tennis players inherently not graceful or is there a tennis star out there that can foxtrot and waltz as well as they dash around tennis courts? I’m thinking that Seles and Hingis are not the end of tennis players taking a turn at a dancing show. Maybe a male tennis player should be a dancing reality shows next option!