The U.S. should beat Russia in the Davis Cup final that starts tomorrow in Portland, Oregon but then, the Michigan\u2019s college football team should have beaten Appalachian State and England\u2019s soccer team should have beaten Croatia. But they didn\u2019t.<\/b><\/p>\n
What could go wrong this weekend in Portland?<\/p>\n
Andy Roddick<\/b>\u2019s back could start hurting again and Mike Bryan<\/b> would have to play one of the reverse singles matches. Roddick hurt his back in the year end championships.<\/p>\n
Mike Bryan<\/b>\u2019s elbow could start hurting again and James Blake<\/b> would have to play doubles. The Bryan brothers skipped the year end championships because Mike\u2019s elbow was injured. I thought those guys were going for too many aces with their new Prince rackets. Don\u2019t they know doubles players should focus on getting the first serve in?<\/p>\n
James Blake<\/b> could fail under the pressure of a Davis Cup final and lose both of his matches. He\u2019s lost more than half his Davis Cup singles matches when the outcome of the tie was undecided.<\/p>\n
Dmitry Tursunov<\/b> could rise to the occasion and beat Roddick 17-15 in the fifth set of the decisive match as he did when Russia defeated the U.S. in Davis Cup last year.<\/p>\n
Mikhail Youzhny<\/b> could beat James Blake just like he did in last year\u2019s Davis Cup match with Russia.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why that won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
Roddick will have a day off to rest between matches and Davis Cup means the world to him. If he can\u2019t beat Roger Federer<\/b> and win Wimbledon, at least he can bring home a Davis Cup title.<\/p>\n
Mike Bryan\u2019s elbow can make it through one match.<\/p>\n
James Blake might lose two matches but Roddick will win both of his singles matches and the Bryan brothers will win doubles so it won\u2019t matter, luckily, what Blake does.<\/p>\n
Tursunov beat Roddick on clay last year and it\u2019s a miracle that Roddick even got to a fifth set on clay. On an indoor hard court, he should be fine.<\/p>\n
So what if Youzhny beats Blake? Go back two paragraphs and see why that doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
Notice that I haven\u2019t mentioned Nikolay Davydenko<\/b>. He\u2019s Russia\u2019s top singles player yet he\u2019s scheduled to play doubles. Russia\u2019s top doubles player, Tursunov, is scheduled to play singles.<\/p>\n
Davydenko has had a bear of a time since he was implicated in a possible fixed match in August of this year. Former Scotland Yard investigators interviewed his brother and wife on behalf of an ATP investigation into the matter.<\/p>\n
The ATP gave Davydenko seven days to submit phone records to the investigators despite the fact that they had little legal standing to do so. Davydenko is so beleaguered that he has agreed to turn the records over. That might be an indication that he is wearing down because it makes little legal sense to turn over such evidence. In the U.S. at least, the ATP should get that information from the phone companies if they are legally entitled to it.<\/p>\n
You know what, this has all the ingredients of a huge upset. The pressure is all over the huge favorites while the underdogs feel little or no pressure. This is especially true for the Russians since they\u2019ve won two Davis Cups in the last five years while the U.S. hasn\u2019t won since 1995.<\/p>\n
Could happen but probably won\u2019t. Feel free to weigh in and clobber me if I\u2019m wrong. I\u2019d expect nothing less.<\/p>\n