New York Times: Roddick Closes In on Davis Cup Dream

Roddick was 9 years old when the Americans last played host to the finals, in 1992 in Fort Worth. The opponent was Switzerland before Roger Federer had come of age, and the United States assembled one of the finest lineups in history — Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and John McEnroe.

That group, with 33 Grand Slam singles titles between them, was so strong that neither Sampras nor McEnroe were picked to play singles. It was quite a deposit in the memory bank for the young Roddick, who attended with a group from his parents’ tennis club in Austin.

After suffering through the clang of the Swiss cow bells in the stands on the first day, Roddick and his oldest brother, Lawrence, returned on the second day with air horns and put them to liberal use. The Americans wound up winning, 3-1, unwittingly laying the foundation for future teams.

“That final pretty much changed my life in terms of tennis and wanting to play Davis Cup,” Roddick said in a television interview Sunday in Sweden after he clinched the United States’ spot in this year’s finals with a straight-set victory over Jonas Bjorkman.

The Americans will play host to defending champion Russia from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 in a city that will be announced later this week but appears likely to be Portland, Ore. The surface will almost certainly be a quick indoor hard court or carpet. “We’re going to try to export all of the clay out of the state of Oregon for the tie,” Roddick cracked at his postmatch news conference.

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