Black Tennis Pros

Now that I'm back down to earth, I can truly say that when Bob and Mike Bryan win their doubles match tomorrow and clinch the Davis Cup for the USA, it will have been one of the most fulfilling tennis moments that I've ever had. Yes, I know that Bob and Mike Bryan are going to win tomorrow, no feeling, no intuition, no brag, strictly fact.....just watch and see.

Today however, both Andy Roddick and James Blake committed to their games and pulled out wins. Both of them actually scared me a bit, although Blake hit me with the fear of God. Roddick seemed so pensive throughout the first set, even though he won. He seemed to play a bit more aggressively in the second and third sets, either way he won. Blake was lightening charged in his first set against Youzhney, but came down quite a bit in the second. When he lost the third, that he should have won, I started having heart palpitations. When Youzhney broke back at 5-4 Blake in the fourth set, I took a drink and turned the channel at 9:57 p.m. I refused to turn back until 10:15 p.m. when only one of two things could be occuring, either James Blake and the entire USA bench would be jumping for joy, or it would be the fifth set.

When I turned back to Versus (VS) at 10:15 p.m. on the nose, a middle-aged man was sitting on a rock in some river talking about deer. I leapt out of my chair because it was off, over and Blake had pulled it out. So what I missed the big hug fest, I'd catch it later on The Tennis Channel and save myself some of life's breath!

This is what Davis Cup match victory looks like:


Post match Blake said:

"They've believed in me the whole year, so I wanted to prove them right, to be honest." Blake said of the U.S. team. "They've had confidence in me every time."

"Every time I came over I saw Patrick with a fist pump saying, 'Keep doing what you're doing,' That's the best feeling," Blake said. "That's the confidence I talked about that my teammates have, that if I play my game I'm going to give myself the best chance to win."

Roddick stated:

"It's kind of like 'so close but so far away.' There's no celebration," he said. "It's one match. The celebration will be saved for when we win, if we win."

"If there are 12-and-a-half thousand people behind you and you can use them to help you win a tennis match, you would be stupid not to, right?" Roddick said. "Other than cheating, I'll do anything I can to win."

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