By Charles Bricker
No one would dispute that the Williams sisters are at least a full level better than the close-knit gang of young women that upset Russia on Sunday to place the U.S. in the finals of the Fed Cup for the second year in a row.
But even if Venus and Serena declare themselves fit and ready to play in the championship tie against Italy in November, captain Mary Joe Fernandez should issue the sisters a polite thank you and go with the team that got them to the title round. Melanie Oudin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands, with doubles help from Liezel Huber. They won this tie and they’ve earned the right to play the final. Period.
Meanwhile, the sisters would do themselves a very big public relations favor if they let Mary Joe know right now that they’re ready to play if either Oudin and/or Mattek-Sands are injured come November, but that they also believe that Mel and Bethanie should get first call.
Of course we could be getting the cart out of the barn first here. It’s not as if Venus and Serena have a history of volunteering to play Fed Cup. The first Fed Cup for both was in July of 1999 and, with this 3-2 win over Russia, there have been 24 U.S. ties since. Venus has been in seven of them, Serena in three.
They’ve played for their country in the Olympic Games. Give them that. But Fed Cup has never been a priority for either. It’s no doubt true that they’ve been injured for some of those last 24 ties. We know they get hurt. But injured 24 times? Even 12? Even six? It defies belief.
The right to play this final belongs to Oudin, 18, and Mattek-Sands, 25, with Huber as one-half of the doubles team. It was Huber, pairing with Bethanie in the deciding match Sunday, who broke the 2-2 tie with a 6-3, 6-1 triumph.
Oudin had given the U.S. a 1-0 lead on Saturday with a victory over Alla Kudryavtseva while Mattek-Sands lost to Elena Dementieva. Then, Sunday, Oudin lost a three-setter to Dementieva to give the Russians a 2-1 lead before Mattek-Sands came back to win over Kudryavtseva, then went right back on court after an appropriate rest to win the doubles with Huber.
Were they nervous? Oudin and Mattek-Sands? That’s laughable. Mattek-Sands is one of the great hang-loose characters in women’s tennis and Oudin might be still a teenager, but she apparently was more wound up teaming with Mattek-Sands in a Wednesday night game of charades against Huber and Fernandez than she was on court.
“Bethanie!” Oudin began. “She’s so funny. We were playing charades and it got pretty intense. We won,” she declared proudly. She could have made that statement again Sunday night after the doubles.
Oudin came into the tie at a career-best No. 31 ranking and Mattek-Sands, newly married and trying to find her form again after hip surgery, is working to break back into the top 100. They’ve found a camaraderie with old pro Huber, who is a South African-born naturalized American, and this is what team play is about — not about begging the Williams sisters to play Fed Cup.
This probably was a bigger triumph for Oudin than for the other players. There were unrealistic expectations of her after she beat four Russians in a row at the U.S. Open last September, including Maria Sharapova and Dementieva, and got to the quarters. The publicity crush was overwhelming and she’s had to learn to compartmentalize the media demands to be able to concentrate on her training.
Her serve needs more work and, at 18, she definitely needs at least another year or hard-edged competition. But she’s getting there.
She’s been working with a physical therapist to get her shoulder loosened up and, though she didn’t hit any aces in this Fed Cup, she rang up nearly two dozen service winners. Aces OR service winners . . . they both count as “free points.” And free points mean she has to do less running to hold serve. This is also her ninth year working in Marietta, Ga., with coach Brian de Villiers, and there’s no denying that that consistency has helped her.
“My serve is better today and I know I’m going to get stronger,” she said. “But placement and consistency are important, too. As for de Villiers, “He knows my game. He knows me. He knows when to push harder and when to back off.”
I asked her to compare where her game is today with that sensational run she had at the Open. “You know, I think I’m playing even better because I’m improving. My game is developing more. At the Open, everything clicked for me. You play your best tennis about 10 percent of the time and I was playing my best tennis (for four matches). I’m healthy. There are no injuries.”
That was a tough loss to Dementieva on Sunday. She had come from a set down to bagel Elena and square the match. Yet even with a split-set loss, she showed how competitive she is with top 10 players.
She also showed, along with Mattek-Sands and Huber, how good a teammate she is. Let these young women finish this Fed Cup season. I don’t care how good Venus and Serena are.
Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com