The Mad Professah Lectures

Wow! The 2016 tennis season ended with a bang on Sunday as Argentina won its very first Davis Cup (in its 5th appearance in the final) when Juan Martin Del Potro and Federico Delbonis won two must-win matches to give their country a 3-2 win in the Davis Cup final over Croatia, in Zagreb.
The day began with Del Potro coming back from 2 sets to none down for the first time in his career against World #8 Marin Cilic to win in 5 sets: 6-7(4), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 in 4 hours 43 minutes. This is the third time this year Cilic has had a 2-0 set advantage in a five-set match and ended up losing it (Wimbledon quarterfinal against Roger Federer and the USA vs Croatia rubber versus Jack Sock.)

But Delbonis' feat was even more amazing. He had to win a live fifth rubber against a higher ranked opponent, playing at home. The 26-year-old lefty Argentine is ranked 41 in the world and is known as a solid clay court player but he defeated the 37-year-old 6-foot-11 Ivo Karlovic (World #20) in straight sets: 6-3 6-4 6-2. Karlovic leads the tour in aces and has the #2 best serve (behind John Isner) but it was Delbonis who never had his serve broken in the match.

Argentina was in the Davis Cup final in 1981, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2016, finally winning it for the first time this year. Croatia won it once before in 2005. Last year Great Britain won

Mayer The Marathon Man
Leonardo Mayer of Argentina needed 11 match points and 6 hours and 42 minutes to defeat Joao Souza of Brazil in the longest Davis Cup match of all time, breaking the longtime record held by John McEnroe's win over Mats Wilander in 1982. The win leveled the tie between Argentina and Brazil at 2-all and then Federico Delbonis beat Thomas Bellucci to advance Argentina to the quarterfinals of this year's Davis Cup.

Muzza Muzzles Americans With An Assist From Ward
World #3 Andy Murray powered Great Britain to a win over a favored United States team by defeating Donald Young and John Isner while somehow James Ward was able to play well above his ranking of #111 to beat Isner in five sets to and dash the Americans hopes of getting past the Brits for the second consecutive year.

Mauresmo Gets Into The Hall Of Fame
Murray's coach, 2-time major champion Amelie Mauresmo was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame this week.

Kei Wins Battle With Raonic, Loses War As Canada Advances
World #5 Kei Nishikori beat World #6 Milos Raonic in their Davis Cup match 6-4 in the fifth set but Canada was able to eliminate Japan in Davis Cup for the year when the Canucks won the doubles point with Vasek Pospisil and Daniel Nestor and Go Soeda was unable to win either of his singles matches.

Serena Returning To Indian Wells This Week, Loses Sascha To Vika
World #1 Serena Williams is playing her first match at Indian Wells tournament since she beat Kim Clijsters to win the title in 2001. Serena announced her return soon after her Australian Open win in January. I said then it was likely that would make me go to the tournament but it looks like that may not happen this year due to some work commitments. Serena will be playing her first tournament in many years without her hitting partner Sascha Baijin, who announced that he was joining Vika Azarenka's camp. The two sides played nice, however:

That's all for this week's Tennis Tuesday!