Israel’s Davis Cup miracle a wake-up call for Australia
Roar Guru
By David Wiseman, 15 Jul 2009 David Wiseman is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Davis Cup, israel tennis, Tennis, Tennis Australia
Israel's Andi Ram, left, and Jonathan Erlich celebrate a point against Russia's Marat Safin and Igor Kunitsyn during the doubles Davis Cup World Group quarter-final tennis match between Israel and Russia in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, July 11, 2009. AP Photo/Ariel Schalit
It is one of the biggest sporting stories of 2009. Unfancied Israel making it to the semi-finals of the Davis Cup for the first time. To put it in perspective, even if Israel had been knocked out in the opening round of the World Group, it would have been a big achievement.
The fact that it has won two ties and is now in the final four is nothing short of miraculous.
Israel will be the first to admit that the draw has done them two great favours.
Firstly, it was drawn to play Sweden when the Swedes’ stocks were badly depleted. Both Thomas Johansson or Andreas Vinciguerra were recovering from injuries and didn’t have a lot of recent matches under their belts.
This was a close tie, with four of the five rubbers going to five sets. Three of those five went past 6-6, and this caught up with the badly stretched Swedes.
Although Israel was hosting Russia in the quarter-final, no one expected it to trouble the visitors. After all, Russia has won the title twice since 2002 and finished runners-up in 2007.
What happened next was astonishing.
Israel won both of the opening singles ties and was up two sets to love in the doubles. Russia showed some resistance in taking out the next two, but Israel would go on to win in five.
If Germany had defeated Spain, the Israelis would be hosting the Germans in the semi-final.
In-front of a partisan crowd against a line-up of Philipp Kohlschreiber, Andreas Beck, Rainer Schuettler and Nicolas Kiefer, who would rule them out?
Instead, they have to travel to Spain to take on the likes of Fernando Verdasco, Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal.
They will be lucky if they win a set.
None of this would be good news for Tennis Australia. A country such as Israel is in the semi-finals while they are languishing in Group I of Asia/Oceania. India is playing South Africa for a spot in next year’s World Group, which is what Australia should be doing.
At the very earliest, it will be 2011 until they are back in the World Group and that last win in 2003 is looking further and further away.
Besides Lleyton Hewitt who else does Australia have? Chris Guccione? Carsten Ball? Bernard Tomic?
The stocks are very, very low, but as Israel has showed, you really don’t need that much to go far.
Enjoy sports? Enjoy a bargain? All Sports Online has your favourite sporting brands at up to 70% off. Online only, premium quality sporting goods and merchandise at discounted prices. Get a deal now.
The Crowd Says (7) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
Do you have what it takes to become a sports writer? Write for the roar
Other Sports articles
- Victoria Azarenka vs Maria Sharapova: Australian Open women’s final live scores, blog (89)
- The sporting fallacy of the Olympic ‘Games’ (46)
- Sonny Bill needs to start boxing full time (46)
- Djokovic vs Nadal was great, but do we need six-hour finals? (36)
- Sonny Bill looking sharp for his first real test (29)
- Sonny Bill wins title in first round (25)
- Nadal vs Djokovic: The match for the ages (20)
- Real boxing still exists: here’s where to find it
- London’s Olympic Games have a long way to come (10)
- New champ Williams looking to next fight (5)
- Aust and GB aim to convert 4ths to bronze
- Young pitcher signs big deal with Red Sox (7)
- World Cup Darts heartbreak in Hamburg (3)
- Mayweather and Pacquiao have shamed boxing (13)
- Real boxing still exists: here’s where to find it (0)
- London’s Olympic Games have a long way to come (10)
- World Cup Darts heartbreak in Hamburg (3)
- Mayweather and Pacquiao have shamed boxing (13)
- Will Tom Brady’s legacy be affected by one drop? (20)
- Sonny Bill needs to start boxing full time (46)
- Lachlan Murdoch squashing FTA sport for Fox’s benefit (4)
- Explore:
- Davis Cup, israel tennis, Tennis, Tennis Australia
Chop said | July 15th 2009 @ 9:49am | Report comment
Unfortunately I agree with you David, stocks in Australian tennis are at an all time low. Unless Lleyton plays in 2011 I don’t expect to get close to the world group again for a long time.
The teams that represent the semi-finalists are a great example of why Australia has plunged. There are so many more nations taking tennis seriously now that we have fallen behind. Australia’s best talent isn’t playing tennis anymore which is a shame, because of all the tradition and strength Australia is used to having in the game.
Brian said | July 15th 2009 @ 9:56am | Report comment
Israel has been lucky, firstly to draw a weak Peru in the World group playoff last year, and then to beat Sweden 3-2. As far as playing stocks go Dudi Sela has been ranked around 60 in the world for the last 2 years whilst the doubles combination of Elrich-Ram have formed a useful partnership which won the 2008 Australian Open. That all of course is not much and all credit to them for winning a lot of 5 set matches to get this far.
But Australia does not have much more. The retirement bound Hewitt aside no-one is consistently in the top 100 and we don’t even have doubles combinations threatening at majors. All this despite hosting a major and getting extra wildcards for our best juniors.
Greg Russell said | July 15th 2009 @ 3:35pm | Report comment
Thanks for writing this article David – it’s along the lines of what I thought to myself after reading the DC results of last weekend, and it’s a necessary statement.
I say it’s necessary because TA’s mismanagement of Australian tennis is a decades-long saga that shows no sign of abating. Israel’s achievement puts in perspective Australia’s spectacular lack of achievement, and therefore its ineptitude.
Some small points from your article:
* “They will be lucky if they win a set.”
I would actually be confident that Erlich/Ram will do better than win a set, as doubles has always been a Spanish Achilles heel. (That said, no question that Spain will win the tie.)
* “Both Thomas Johansson or Andreas Vinciguerra were recovering from injuries”
Anyone know why Robin Soderling, one of the form players in world tennis, was not part of the Swedish team? Might have been a very different result if he’d played.
* ” India is playing South Africa for a spot in next year’s World Group, which is what Australia should be doing.”
What makes you so confident that Australia would have won in India?
Malibu77 said | July 15th 2009 @ 3:35pm | Report comment
Israel showed what can be done with 2 handy singles players, a top doubles pair and a good draw, although they did win away to Sweden earlier in the year in a very tight contest and in front of no crowd due to “security” measures.
Australia’s plight looks grim. We would need a home draw in the qualifying round to have a chance as the prospects of winning away in Europe or South America are not good. Maybe the focus needs to be on our women in the Fed Cup? They get no TV and basically no mention anywhere yet with Dokic, Dellacqua, Stosur, Stubbs and co look strong. The only coverage of their recent tie in Mildura against the Swiss was of Geoff Pollards press conference about how the Davis cup team was not going to India!
Brian said | July 15th 2009 @ 4:39pm | Report comment
Greg Soderling was also injured I can’t remember how? I dont think he played the Aus Open either. In fact before the tie Sweden’s coach Mats Wilander was so short of players he suggested that he may call Stefan Edberg to join him and play the doubles. It was a joke but after they lost the doubles (and the tie) the question resurfaced.
Joe O'Sullivan said | July 16th 2009 @ 1:45pm | Report comment
It’s great to see the Israelis doing well. I look forward to the Palestinians doing likewise.
concerned about Aussie tennis said | July 24th 2009 @ 3:52pm | Report comment
It was a great win by Israel. It is somewhat similar to how Australia used to beat teams with higher ranked oponents … e.g. Wayne Arthurs beating Yevgeny Kafelnikov comes to mind, Pat Rafter (ranked 64 at the time) beating #4 Cedric Pioline, Hewitt beating Guga in Brasil … etc, etc.
Dudi Sela has been a solid 60-80 player for the past couple of seasons and don’t forget Harel Levy has been a former top 40 player before being hit by injury. These guys can play and when you have a doubles pair of the quality of Ram and Erlich, you know that one upset can turn a tie.
As for Australia, well unfortunately we will be waiting at least 6 or 7 years for our current crop of 13 and 14 year-olds who seem to have great potential. Let’s just hope that they don’t fall into the same mismanagement and poor guidance by Tennis Australia as the boys a few years ahead of them.
Steve Wood and Craig Tiley surely have a lot to answer for – in any other business they certainly would have been shown the door by now. They have both been in their respective positions within Tennis Australia (TA) for over 3 years now and things have gone so far backwards that it will now be a 10 year fix if these guys were to be shown the door now.
Australia has people who are absolute world leaders in their field in every aspect of tennis, be it coaches, fitness trainers, footwork experts, equipment technicians, sports psychologists, etc, all of whom are currently working with non-Australian players and are being ignored by the TA system.
The TA board needs to wake up and make Wood and Tiley accountable for the damage they have done and put an end to it now so Aussie tennis can start from scratch with the right peoiple running the sport.