Double Jeopardy: A Yank at the Fed Cup in Brisbane

I had expected to enjoy the Australian Open when I was here for the year but never thought I would catch Davis and Fed Cup action as well. In fact, I might speculate that I was the only American in either hemisphere that caught both Cup events in Oz this year.
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This is a special Letter from Melbourne limited to my friends and public who are tennis enthusiasts. Spoiler alert - there will be no additional items or observations for those who are not interested in tennis. But that's enough warning... onwards.

Denise and I were returning to the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Brisbane for the second time. Three years ago a cabbie rescued us from a dark, noisy hotel that had come recommended by taking us, as he told Denise, "to the best hotel in Brisbane." I don't know if it's the best, but it was several steps up from where we were staying, right on the Brisbane River and also facing the Botanic Gardens. We had a lovely time and when it was time for me to come up to Brisbane from Melbourne to deliver two medical/psychiatric presentations, we chose to stay at the Stamford Plaza again.

As remote as this introduction might appear, our choice of hotel was critical to the tennis story that follows. When we arrived, as our bags were being taken to our room, I spied a strange notice (at least to me) on the meetings board, "USTA meeting in Raffles 3." I knew almost for certain that the USTA stood for United States Tennis Association. "Why on earth (Australia is very, very far from the U.S.)," I wondered, "was there a USTA meeting in Brisbane at this time of year?" I asked the bellman and he didn't know much so I let it drop.

The next morning (a Thursday) I was riding down the elevator from the 20th floor and noticed a woman wearing a sweatshirt with the USTA logo on the front. I couldn't contain my curiosity. I am a very serious tennis player/fan and also am rarely one to restrain a question. I asked her "Is there a USTA meeting here? And why?" "Australia is hosting the Fed Cup and the U.S. Team is playing Australia Saturday at Pat Rafter Stadium," she said.

"You're kidding me!" I reacted. I was already thinking, "This is amazing." I had just seen the men's Davis Cup, Australia vs. the U.S., in Melbourne about six weeks before. Now I happened to be in Brisbane, quite by accident, at the same time the women's equivalent to the Davis Cup, the Fed Cup, would be hosting the same two teams?

As the elevator descended I told the woman as much. She said, "I'm Katrina Adams, the president of the USTA." "You're kidding me!" I think I said it again. "No," she continued, "and I remember you from Melbourne because I was there too. You were the guy holding the 'Isner for President' sign, right?" My jaw nearly hit the floor. But if you know me, virtually nothing can stop me from talking. "You saw the sign?" I repeated dumbly. Of course, she saw the sign. Virtually everyone at Kooyong saw the sign. It was on the local channels' highlights reel of the Davis Cup matches according to two friends who were watching. Forty people at the stadium wanted their photographs taken with it (and me) to send to their crazy voting relatives in the States (anyone is better than Trump was implied).

"Well I'm a real tennis fan," I managed to tell Ms. Adams (actually President Adams). "I had no idea the Fed Cup was being held up here." I told her I was here with my wife, Denise, to give some presentations, that I was a doctor. But I told her I would really think about coming out to Pat Rafter on Saturday if I could convince Denise to come as well.

We said our goodbyes. I had been on my way to get a flat white for myself (for you non-Aussies, that's one of their most common espresso drinks here) and a latte for Denise. When I got back up to the room, I immediately told Denise about my encounter and about my eagerness to see the American women play. "Think of it, Denise. That I might see both the Davis and Fed Cup in Australia within six weeks of one another." Denise was not particularly impressed or enthusiastic.

We had talked earlier about using that free Saturday (the only full day I was not committed to one of the presentations) for going back up to see the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary without a doubt, the best place to see and experience Ozian wild life on the East Coast of Australia. You get to enter these large penned areas where kangaroo and wallaby herds graze and hop. They are not afraid of humans. You are allowed to feed and pet them. I prefer the wallabies over the roos. Herds of 200-pound emus run by and if you're wise you let them pass otherwise they'd knock you down for sure.

Wallabies used to be my favorite Australian fauna until I discovered echidnas. I admit I was eager to go back up to Lone Pine to check out how they did echidnas. I don't even remember seeing them the first time amongst the wombats, dingoes, koalas and platypuses that I do remember. But doing the Fed Cup was awfully appealing.

For a change, I played it smart with Denise. No pressure. "Denise, it's up to you. If you prefer to see the koalas over the women's tennis, I understand." She said "Okay. I think I want to see the koalas." I suppressed my disappointment. Koalas it will be. I also called David, the son of a close doctor friend of mine from the East Bay, who is studying medicine at Queensland University. I told him we were going up to see koalas on Saturday and asked if he wanted to join us. David assented and we were three for the koalas in two days.

Later that day, Denise went out to get another latte (these coffee drinks turn out to be critical to the development of this story which is taking a very long time to tell). She came back and said, "You know, I've changed my mind. Let's do Fed Cup." I could barely contain my happiness. "What made you change your mind?" I managed to utter. "Well, the guy who made me the latte downstairs asked me if I was part of the team - not a player - but apparently there's a fairly large entourage. He heard my American accent and assumed I was USTA. So then I thought, 'Why not.' It would be fun."

Denise played tennis for almost 30 years before injuring both her ACLs and now just swims. But she knows her tennis as well. She attended almost as many sessions of the Australian Open as I did in Melbourne in January. But she passed up the Davis Cup, which was a complete gas for me. I was one of about ten Americans among 8,500 Aussies, cheering for their respective countries. I expected even fewer Americans turning up in Brisbane for Fed Cup. Really, that was one of my reasons for going, to offer my patriotic duty to support my country, that country of Trump who's about to capture the Republican nomination for President. "We are not Trump." This is what ex-patriot Americans in Australia say these days - the opposite of "We are Charlie Hebdo" or "We are Paris."

I called David and told him of our change in plans. He was cool and would meet us at Pat Rafter Stadium, which is about 20 minutes outside of the CBD by car. I also decided that evening to call and leave a message at the hotel for Katrina Adams. At Davis Cup in Melbourne, I remember how weird and lonely it was to be one of the few Americans cheering for our team among thousands of Australians in the stands. I asked if there was to be a section for Americans on Saturday and if so, could there be a way we might join them. I mentioned I had already bought tickets but they were general admission (there was no reserved seating anywhere in the stadium, at least with on-line purchases).

On Friday evening on our return from a late dinner, I found two envelopes under our hotel door. They both had USTA return addresses. One had six tickets, three for the Saturday matches and three for Sunday. The other had a note from Anne Marie Martin, Katrina Adams, administrator, which said we should join the American contingent rooting for the American team on Saturday. I thought perhaps these might be reserved seats up close.

I did a little reading up on the Fed Cup. It used to be called the Wightman Cup. In 1963 it was changed to the Federation Cup and shortened in 1995 to simply the Fed Cup . Like the Davis Cup, it is played in ties over the course of the year and attracts entries from up to 70 countries. However, there is an elite Group I of 16 countries that ultimately play for the Cup. This U.S./Australia match was a qualifying round to reenter the international elite tier. Last year the Czech Republic won the overall prize.

Similar to the Davis Cup there's a round of two singles matches (best of three sets -- not five as for the men) on Day One of the tie. But unlike the Davis Cup, the second day is not doubles, but the reverse singles round (in which a team is allowed to substitute a player from the previous day). If after the four matches the tie is tied 2-2, then a doubles match (best of three sets as well) is played immediately after the last singles match.

The Americans brought three up and coming American women tennis players, Madison Keys, Christina McHale and Coco Vandeweghe. Not surprisingly the Williams sister, Serena and Venus passed (Serena has played many times for this non-paying patriotic tour of duty and Venus continues to suffer from her auto-immune Sjogrens Syndrome). Surprisingly though, Sloane Stephens, higher ranked than any of the three playing members, chose not to participate.

On the Australian team, the highest ranked participant and most experienced player on either team was Samantha (Sam) Stosur, who won the U.S. Open in 2011 and at age 32 is still ranked number 26 in the world (just below Keys at 25). Also playing in the singles for Australia, was the Russian, now living in (the past three years) and playing for Australia, Daria (Dash) Gavrilova.

The Australians were the home team. I'm not sure why the match was played in Brisbane. However, as in the Davis Cup when the Australians were also the home team, Australia Tennis (AT), the governing body of professional tennis Down Under in consultation with the coaches of the Davis Cup (Leyton Hewitt) and Fed Cup (Alicia Molik) got to choose the surface, hard court, clay or grass on which their respective ties were to be played. At Kooyong in Melbourne, the center court hard court was changed to grass (not an easy task I'm sure) to no avail. John Isner in his match against Bernard Tomic, served 51 aces, to clinch the tie.

At the Fed Cup, the TA spent $100,000AUD to convert the Rafter center court hard court to imported French clay. Apparently clay is Stosur's favorite surface so the Aussies were obviously placing all their bets on Sam. Brisbane is also her hometown. Whether all this expectation was a good thing you'll get to decide in a moment. When I arrived with Denise and Josh on Saturday morning before the first match (Keys vs. Gavrilova), all I can say is that the court looked picture perfect from Roland Garros, home of the French Open.

In one of my previous visits I had come out to Queensland Tennis Center and checked out the eponymous arena named after Pat Rafter, former world number one and Queensland native. The stadium seats 5500 which means there isn't a bad seat in the house to watch premier tennis. We entered without problems and found three seats in the second row, just at the ad side corner of the court. We had no idea where or if there were any other Americans or where the "American contingent" might be.

I will remind the reader that unlike most other competitive tennis settings, vocal and vociferous cheering is permitted, even encouraged in Davis and Fed Cup. At the Davis Cup, the Australians had a group of fifty or so, dressed in Aussie yellow and green with a motley brass band, leading organized cheers for the 8500 spectators - excepting, as I mentioned, the 10 or so Americans who chose to applaud or cheer their own fellow countrymen. There were four or five Americans apart from me who had brought a numbered sign that kept track of Isner's aces. They would hold up the number of aces, 14, 15, 16, etc. and yell "16 Aces. Woo-Woo!" I'm telling you, when the number got into the forties, their mantra got pretty old, even for this American rooting for Isner.

So anyway, I was prepared to be pretty loud in order to compensate for our relative meager numbers in the crowd. Denise was fairly apprehensive. She, in general, feels I carry on too much (totally understandable after 43 years together) but only once or twice looked at me with disapproval while I vocally narrated the best of the American play to those all around me with "Great shot," "Awesome," "USA! USA!"

My seat partner was an 85-year-old Aussie gal named Heather. We got to know each other pretty well during the approximately four hours we were there. Heather was brought up on a large farm that grew bananas and raised cattle at the Queensland/New South Wales border. She had five brothers and sisters and their family had a grass court upon which the whole family played (parents included). Heather (I never got her surname) and one of her brothers went on to play on the national amateur level in Australia. She says she now plays 18 holes of golf. All I can tell you is Heather still knew her tennis. On most of the points she and I agreed on the quality and strategy. She was there with one of her daughters and a grandson. None of them seem to mind sitting next to this vociferous American. But then again, Aussies are very polite.

In the first match, Keys simply overpowered Gavrilova 6-4, 6-2. Keys, Stosur and even McHale can hit very hard. Gavrilova played in a more steady retriever fashion that marks much women's play. She simply could not keep up with Keys' power. Keys' must have made two dozen unforced (mostly forehand) errors that were painful to watch but the force of her serve and ground strokes were too much for Gavrilova. The match was over in an hour and ten minutes. I felt the quality of play might have been second or third round Grand Slam type tennis.

The more anticipated contest was between Stosur and McHale. I believe I saw the 23-year old McHale when she played (and won?) the girls 18s at the Berkeley Tennis Club maybe five years ago. Stosur won the first set convincingly 6-3, but then seemed to wilt and McHale played magnificently aggressive tennis and took the second set, 6-1.

Stosur collected herself in the third set and the quality of play became quite high (third or fourth round Grand Slam level). Stosur was serving in the crucial seventh game, with the score tied 3-3. There were 13 deuces! McHale had seven break points. Twice Stosur's shots hit the line for winners when she was down a break point. Finally, Stosur prevailed and I wondered whether or not McHale would have anything left when she came out to serve at 3-4.

She did! And then the score was 5-5 (I wondered if they would play a tie breaker at 6-6 in the last set or play through as they do in Wimbledon or as they had in Davis Cup until just this year) when Stosur made two or three costly errors when up close at net to lose her service game as the crowd groaned. Diller, Denise and Josh cheered. Really except for the Fed Cup American bench, we noticed no one else in Stadium rooting for McHale.

I had been shouting "Way to go Kristin!" for the first four games of the match until Denise corrected me (she had looked McHale up on Safari on her phone) and said her name was "Christina." I dutifully started shouting her correct name when she would hit a good shot (thank God for my wife). At least twice McHale looked up after a point to see who this maniac was calling out her name.

McHale after breaking Stosur, held serve without a problem to win the third set 7-5. The match took a decent 2 hours and 20 minutes with long quality points where each player had to build the point in order to finally put the ball away. Stosur's errors were critical. McHale played well. Stosur has one of the best Fed career records of current women players but has generally played lousy on her "home" court at Rafter.

Indeed the investment in clay didn't pay off as the next day I read that Stosur lost to my secret protégé, Coco Vandeweghe in three sets after winning the first. Stosur once again made critical errors in the third set. Denise and I picked Coco out of a chorus line of women players at the Australian Open. She's a big girl from California. We loved her big game, big serve and court ease. She got to the finals in mixed doubles at the Australian Open and won the women's doubles crown at Indian Wells in March.

She and her partner, also won the consolation doubles match in straight sets, making it 4-0 for the Americans. On Monday The Age (a Melbourne newspaper) ran a story questioning Steve Healy, TA president, about the $100,000 investment in the clay court at Rafter and probably more to install the grass court at Kooyong -- in that overall, the Aussies won only one match of eight against the Americans.

Personally I think the money could have been more wisely spent by offering the sum to Nick Kyrgios, the volatile, gifted 20-year-old Aussie who somehow was too "ill" to play for the Davis Cup team one week, but by the following week had recovered enough to make it into the semi-finals at the prestigious and lucrative Indian Wells tournament in Southern California. Note: when you play in Davis or Fed Cup you play for your country. Only your expenses are covered.

But more importantly, I had another great time watching tennis in Australia. I had expected to enjoy the Australian Open when I was here for the year but never thought I would catch Davis and Fed Cup action as well. In fact I might speculate that I was the only American in either hemisphere, not associated with a tennis or news media organization, that caught both Cup events in Oz this year. Harry Hopman, I hope, would be pleased.

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