cccallan@ucdavis.UUCP (Allan McKillop) (10/12/85)
Did anybody notice the results from the recent Davis Cup Semi-finals? West Germany upset Czechoslovokia (who were sans Lendl in singles for some reason). The tie started off routinely enough with Boris Becker beating Miroslav Mecir in straight sets, but the Michael Westphael (sp?) upset Thomas Smid 14-12 in the fifth set. Now what I find interesting is that after Westphael beats the #15 (roughly) player in the world in Davis Cup play, the very next week he turnes around and gets crushed 6-0 6-2 by Thierry Tuslane (sp? again) in some rinky dink tournament. Why is it that some players seem to be top 20 material when they are playing for their country, but put them on in a regular tournament, and they are just average? Raul Ramirez was another excellent example of this. And why did Lendl play doubles (with Smid) yet didn't play singles? I hadn't heard anything about any injuries. Any ideas? Does anybody know if the Cup final is going to be played in Sweeden or is it going to be played in West Germany? I wish the West Germans luck, because they are really going to need it! -- Allan McKillop (...ucbvax!ucdavis!deneb!cccallan) "Where there's a will, there's a relative..."
cher@ihlpm.UUCP (Cherepov) (10/14/85)
> Why is it that some players seem to be top 20 material when they are > playing for their country, but put them on in a regular tournament, and > they are just average? Raul Ramirez was another excellent example of > this. > > And why did Lendl play doubles (with Smid) yet didn't play singles? > I hadn't heard anything about any injuries. Any ideas? > My guess would be that German super performance (I'm not trying to take anything away from them) might be better explained by Czechs' attitude. Were Lendl (who applied for green card in US, and lives in Connecticut) and Smid (who also lives here) particularly motivated by necessity to represent their communist country? Not necessarily... All the Davis Cup things : team spirit, national pride and what not, attention (fans) , etc,etc, could be very helpful for folks who like that sort of things. B.t.w: I saw Tulasne match against Connors at US open and was rather impressed: he resembles Lendl a lot and hits pretty hard .. No cigar though. Mike Cherepov