By Chris Oddo Photo Credit: Laurent Gillieron/Keystone
Their work is far from done in Switzerland, but for now the American Davis Cup team is sitting on top of the world.
You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody giving the Americans a chance this weekend as they prepared to face a Federer-led Swiss team on its home soil, but after two stunningly brilliant efforts from the two top-ranked Americans, they are clearly in the drivers seat with momentum on their side.
"You never know what you're going to get in Davis Cup," said American Captain Jim Courier. "We could have easily lost the first match, which was up and down, and Mardy found a way to win that one, which was huge."
Fish's gritty 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 9-7 victory over Stan Wawrinka, his fifth five-set win in his last six Davis Cup matches, paved the way for what Isner would accomplish next.
"That probably helped John free up to play even more aggressively than he [would] under normal circumstances," said Courier of Fish‘s ice-breaking victory over Wawrinka. "That's a match, against Roger on this surface, that you have to play the way John did to have a chance, and he executed when he needed to."
Isner's 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2 victory was the first win by an American on clay against Federer since 1999. The world No. 17 had won only one career Davis Cup singles match coming into the tie, and he had lost his only two matches to Federer.
"It was the biggest win of my life, that's for sure," said Isner.
"I said earlier I shouldn't take the court if I don't believe that I can go out here and win this match," added Isner. "To be honest I really owe a lot to Captain Courier. He was on me in practice all week. He told me to do all the right things; every single practice, hit all the right shots. The way I played today -- that's how I need to play in all my matches."
Federer, who had won fifteen consecutive Davis Cup singles matches prior to this week, believes there is still hope for the reeling Swiss squad. "Things just didn't go my way," said Federer, who seemed to have difficulty dealing with the strange bounces coming off the clay as well as Isner’s extreme brand of power tennis. "They didn't for Stan either. He didn't have a good match, I agree with that, but we’ll pick each other up like we did at the Olympics and hopefully play a really good match on Saturday."
Federer and Wawrinka will try to keep the Swiss alive Saturday in the doubles against Mike Bryan and Ryan Harrison.