Team USA Sweeps all 4 cups played at Wilding Park for Day 1!!
Fred Perry Cup, 2-1 vs. Argentina
Dubler Cup, 3-0 vs. Japan
Margaret Court Cup, 3-0 vs. Canada
Italia Cup, 2-0 vs. Argentina (doubles was just starting when we departed)
Today was a beautiful, sunny day in Christchurch which made the great tennis that much more enjoyable. The fine weather and amazing tennis was a nice reward following the still nerve-wracking bus ride from the hotel on what still feels like the “wrong” side of the road. Brain having a challenging time wrapping itself around that one!
This year there are only 14 teams in the Fred Perry Cup, vs. 24 last year. Seeded teams are as follows: USA (1), France (2), Great Britain (3), Australia (4) – (2nd place last year), Germany (5), New Zealand (6).
USA is the only team to have 3 players ranked in the top 10 in the world. The second team with the most players in the top 10 was Austria, who was seeded #2 last year, but unfortunately they do not have a showing this year for this division. They are playing in a round robin format and have a very tough draw with both Argentina and the Netherlands. A comment was made that it was surprising that, especially Argentina, wasn’t seeded. This was definitely a tougher first round than they faced in last year’s championship.
#2 Singles played first, with Val Wilder of Dallas, TX vs. Carlos Lieb. This match consisted of many long rallies with Val having a bit of ebb and flow with his game. He tightened up a few of times during the first set and lost two service games with double faults. He made up for this with some amazing, super spin drop shot winners that kept the first set tight. He pulled that one out 6-4, despite being broken twice. Wilder definitely loosened up in the second set, took control, and easily took the match in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.
#1 Singles up next, Mike Fedderly, Palm Desert, CA (love-hate relationship — probably more with me than Mike, ha!) Love the guy, hate when he beats Mike in singles…incidentally, they just played each other in the finals at the Fiesta Bowl in Palm Desert and that’s all I’m gonna say. Hrmph. Fedderly took on Carlos Geyer and they both came out of the gate strong, staying on serve until game #6 in the first set. Geyer was visibly losing steam, taking as much possible time in between points to regain composure…this seemed to frustrate Fedderly who clearly wanted to take care of business. At one point, his opponent was taking too long and Fedderly told him, “you can rest when the set’s over.” Well, he got his rest, and he also didn’t pick up a game in the second set to chalk this match up in team USA’s column, 6-2, 6-0.
The final Perry Cup Match was a bit of a nail biter. Mike Tammen paired with Peter Markus, Austin, TX. They took on a doubles team that, in some people’s opinion, were stronger players than both the single players that were defeated earlier in the day, hermanos Luis and Leon Medus. Mike played deuce, Peter ad. The first set was riddled with errors by their opponents, including several double faults at critical points. Tammen and Markus won easily 6-2. The second set was a bit of a different story. The Argentinians picked up their game a bit, made less errors and forced a break at 2-2. While there were 5 break points chances in one game alone, and a couple others during the set, none were converted. Team USA was still playing a pretty solid game, but it just took the one break to split sets.
It seemed that Tammen and Markus were a bit out of rhythm with one another…when one was going gang busters, the other seemed to make more unforced errors. Mike got broke in the third set at game 7. They had their chances to convert, but did not capitalize. There were many wonderfully intense net points with all players demonstrating amazing hand-eye coordination, as well as the varied play that makes me love watching the 50’s…drop shot, lob, slice and impossible angle winners. Sadly the match did not end the way this observer would have liked (I might be a bit biased), but it was definitely an entertaining match, to be sure. Team USA = 2, Team Argentina = 1. Final.
After reviewing my commentary with Mike, I asked him if there was anything he would like added or changed. His reply, “Yeah…the result…”