Bettauer: Lessons learned on the big stage

While the final score of 4 matches to 1 for France in the World Group Davis Cup tie with Canada was probably the score that might have been considered the most realistic, the way it happened demonstrated the dramatic twists that often makes Davis Cup such a compelling and unique in competition in sport.

First off, let’s acknowledge the superior play and overall first class presentation by the French team.  Led by their very classy Captain, Guy Forget who has won 4 Davis Cup Championships as a player and coach, and the superb athletic and vibrant play of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils, they were the best team this weekend by a significant margin.  France is where Canada wants to be as a tennis nation and has studied their system intently, applying a number of their successful concepts diligently over the past 20 years and even hiring one of their best coaches in Louis Borfiga who is now Tennis Canada Vice President of High Performance.    They also showed great spirit and support for each other and were frankly a difficult team to dislike and cheer against aggressively.  Monfils stepping in to play the final dead match and putting on a very entertaining show was a nice respectful salute to the very appreciative Canadian audience.

The big shock of Milos Raonic not being able to play on Sunday for the highly anticipated match with Tsonga sure knocked the wind out of the sails of the tie and basically sealed Canada’s fate.  Frank Dancevic must be commended for a very spirited, energetic performance that energized the crowd and hopefully provides a positive platform that encourages him to push himself to get back into the main draw of tour events where he belongs.  He surprised Tsonga and forced Forget to roll up his sleeves to get his player refocused and pick up his level of play.  Dancevic was starting to lay some tracks in the match and the French had to pay attention showing some respect for his play.  In the end, Tsonga showed why he is number six in the world and steamrolled the 3^rd set.

Canada’s performance in the tie gets mixed reviews.  Raonic’s play in his match against Benneteau was startling and powerful.  In that match he showcased all the qualities that will make him a top contender on the men’s tour for many years.  But his current vulnerability to joint related injuries underlines his need to strengthen the muscles around the joints and maybe adjust his footwork a little when he needs to change direction quickly.  Some of this will occur naturally as he further matures physically and his muscle mass consolidates with is frame.  But this is a real concern now and I know is being addressed in depth by Raonic and his team.

The doubles match was also a big disappointment.  Not the loss, as the French team of Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau played great with Benneteau in particular stellar rebounding from his beat down from Raonic.   No, it was the subpar performance from the Canadians.  The logic of substituting Pospisil with the hot Raonic would be that the French players would have to face two of the best serves in the game.  With both Daniel Nestor and Raonic only serving at around 50% that advantage went out the window as the French capitalized with laser beam returns and pinpoint serving of their own.  The other issue that became apparent was that Raonic was a singles player on court with 3 experienced doubles players.  Doubles is quite a different game from singles, as anyone who plays both knows, with smaller targets and shorter set-up time where precision trumps brute power.  Raonic looked out of place and Llodra and Benneteau were merciless in exploiting his apparent awkwardness at the net.  I think everyone felt badly for Nestor who struggled throughout the match to find his outstanding doubles form.  It was literally to the exact same weekend in Vancouver 20 years earlier that he provided the world with his amazing performance against Stefan Edberg so comparisons were inevitable.  He has done so much for Canadian tennis so we all hope to we will see him play a Davis Cup match again in Canada.

Canada will find out in April who they will face in the World Group Qualifying round in September.  This time Canada will be defending a World Group spot rather than challenging for one.   Possible opponents could include Switzerland, Australia or England all featuring a few well known players!  Canada leaves this tie having gained valuable lessons of what the calibre of play is in the World Group.  Raonic is there but needs to be physically healthy.  Nestor is there in doubles and has been for long time, but for how much longer?  The number 2 singles position is not there yet.  Vasek Pospisil played better in his 2^nd match with Monfils and has the big game but needs to tighten his play by reducing the unforced errors and consistently getting his big first serve in at least around the 60%-70% level.  Dancevic showed game but needs to get back into the top 100 at a minimum to be considered the number 2 player with the ability to bring a World Group singles point on the table.  It will be intriguing to see where Canada stands in seven months.  A lot of tennis to play!

And finally special kudos to Vancouver.  The city shone throughout the tie with tremendous crowds and a great venue that looked and sounded great!  Vancouver has made a powerful case to host Davis Cup again and with a little luck it could be as soon as September!

Click here to find the original posting of this blog.