Coming to America

USA ... USA ... USA ...

Patty and I were enjoying a relaxing Independence Day afternoon at home, flipping through the channels to see what might interest us.  Low and behold, we stumbled on the mini-series John Adams - one of my favorite productions HBO has ever aired.  (If anyone would like to borrow our DVDs of it, just let me know.)  American History is one of my very favorite topics to study and discover as while peering into the episodes depicting the19th century livelihood of our second president, there was only one person that kept running through my cerebral hamster cage...

Rafael Nadal.

Clearly.  Nothing screams American Revolution and Independence more than an modern-day, Spanish wonder-athlete that just fell to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.  Truthfully, it's not that I was obsessing over Nadal's greatness or thought he had a striking resemblance to any of the characters (although Andy Murray does look like John Keating.)  It's more that we've watched Roger Federer and Nadal dominate men's tennis for the last eight years with Djokovic now storming the castle with the world's number one ranking and there isn't a sniff of American presence on the tennis scene.

Adams would be mortified.

I don't claim to be a tennis fanatic, but I do enjoy following the second week of major tournaments - especially the US Open.  I could watch mostly every set of a major tournament's second week of competition, which is maddening to Patty.  In that second week, I'm routinely excited if there is ANY American male that has made it into the round of eight...or even 16.    This past week, Mardy Fish, at the Jurassic age of 29, made it to the quarterfinals where he eventually bowed-out to Nadal.  But hey, at least Fish took the third set from the Spaniard.  Go America!

Like any great patriot, I love cheering for the Red, White and Blue, but especially in those sports and competitions where we find ourselves the underdogs.  This actually makes sense - sort of - why I was thinking of Nadal.  On the international stage, it's easy to be USA ALL THE WAY in basketball or swimming or track and field.  Yet, like any Cinderella story, it's always nice when the less popular, less talented team or athlete is crowned champion.  This is why I have no trouble claiming my favorite FIFA soccer team, Olympic hockey squad or men's tennis players as being American.

Now some of you may have heard of the Davis Cup.  I have, but I probably don't give it more than 15 minutes of my attention PER YEAR.  The concept of the Davis Cup is confusing and I never could keep track of all of the countries participating.  If you know nothing about the Davis Cup, here are the three basic principles behind it:
1) men's tennis
2) occurs every year and stretches through the entire calendar
3) country vs. country - first to three match victories moves on

Upon  browsing the Davis Cup site, I was surprised to see the QUARTERFINALS are this weekend.  And..what do you know...the Fighting Americans have made it to the prestigious round of eight and face...Spain.  I knew I had Nadal on the brain for a reason.  Actually, Nadal is not competing this weekend, but that still does not take away from the fact the US is a large underdog. 

What does this mean for you?  Probably nothing.  Most of us may have trouble remembering the Davis Cup even involves men's tennis and more than most of us don't pay any mind to the sport since it doesn't involve hitting or gambling.  And any international tournament that revolves yearly is much harder to digest for the American sports fan's appetite (not to mention it can only be found on the Tennis Channel.)

The point is Americans (who have cared to pay attention) and the rest of the planet have marveled at the skills of many international tennis greats for a long time.  The American men's tennis scene has gone irrelevant since Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras hung up their racquets.  I will be paying closer attention this weekend to see how Andy Roddick, the Bryan brothers and Fish fare against stronger foes. 

A pioneer in dismantling world powers

Men's tennis has been so compelling because we know a lot about its champions.  Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have battled each other epically and have swatted on-comers with great ease.  The American men don't get many shots at tennis glory, but this might be the opportunity they could capitalize on.  Their matches with Spain this weekend are all in Austin, Texas.  They've have the luxury of Roddick being eliminated almost two weeks ago from Wimbledon.   And there's no Nadal.  It would be a nice story, even if we've been forced to reintroduce American men's tennis into our sports-following pipeline.

And if they falter, at least we had John Adams.