Butt Andy!

If you're a sick dude like me, and feeling the dogs nipping at your heels (MrsSanta, TaiC?) wondering what else can go wrong, your reaction when Andy Roddick spoiled the moment everyone had been waiting for by pulling a something-or-other, somewhere near his you-know-what (rhymes with "bass"; three guesses only, winner gets Bob, The Collected Comments), the first thought to flash your mind as you gasped in horror was:

But(t). . . what Abutt Davis Cup???????????

Well, the interesting thing (maybe) is, that was the very question that popped into Andy's mind just moments after he strained the hamstring in his left leg and decided that his Injured Warrior Moment could wait (the new IWM badge is being minted as we speak, in the basement of Sydney's Sir William Wallace pub). After all, it was a long way to go with the men still in the circle-each-other-and-sniff stage of the match. They were on serve, with Murray leading 4-3.

So in the presser afterwards, Andy was asked, "So what is it? (the injury)"

He said: "I don't know. They said - I'm going to get an MRI, but it's just upper. . . I think the medical term is "the bottom of my (rhymes with 'bass') hurts."

Why do I get the feeling that this is turning into an episode of The Simpsons, except stoopider?

But seriously: The injury occurred in the third or fourth game (Andy himself wasn't sure), as Roddick lunged for a volley that wrong-footed him. This, of course, is an elliptical comment on Murray and the kind of game he plays. It's jack-in-the-box tennis; you never know where the ball is going to pop up next, and the problems Murray presents are perfectly articulated by the now obvious fact that you can hurt yourself if you try to cover all the bases when playing Murray.

So what's the natural deduction from that? You can't let Murray jerk you around. He jerks better than anyone around (please, please, don't let my Inner Simpson emerge!), so the only surefire solution is to keep him handcuffed. But guess what? Nobody today is playing bad cop movie ("cuff him!")tennis. Nobody, including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, has the kind of game that says: Get that cute crap out of here before you really get me sore! This suggests that by the time this post gets relegated to the ash heap of TW's archives, Murray will be a major force in the game.

Still, it would have been fun to see if Roddick could a bread-and-butter sensibility on the match, keeping Murray from producing unexpected shots that pop up in unexpected places. Roddick is straightforward and sufficiently schooled in the uses of power to do that, although his inclination to attack and finish with the volley is less an instinct or even learned behavior at this point than an experiment in which he doesn't always appear to have complete confidence: So Jimmy, let me get this straight.  You're telling me that if I hit, follow through and kind of keep going and sort of flow up to the net, all in one motion, everything is going to be okay?

The match would have been an interesting barometer for Murray, and an unpleasant, no-win proposition for Roddick. Could Murray add another significant scalp to his belt on an occasion that lacked the motivational elements of, say, a Grand Slam semifinal - that is, a Big Match, transpiring in a Big Moment, on a Big Stage, which is to say the kind of match a dominant, consistent World No. 1 must win, week-in and week-out?  And, on the flip (Roddick)  side, could Roddick protect his back from a hard-charging youngster while his attention was focused on the middle distance, and the heels of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal?

We'll never know.

But let's get back to the really important stuff. How is this going to affect the U.S. vs. Spain Davis Cup tie that will be played on Easter weekend?  Rafael Nadal has already taken a pass on that tie, which I find disappointing on a number of levels, only one of which has what I would call "long-term significance." The way Nadal is rolling along on the hard courts, an outstanding performance against the U.S., who will have the home-court advantage of the host, would really have boosted his stock. The injury (right foot) that caused Nadal to pull out of DC may be real enough, but it clearly isn't serious enough to cause him to  withdraw from the tournament here in Miami, so I'm not factoring it into my thoughts here.

Okay, winning Indian Wells and getting to the final or winning Miami as well would put paid to Nadal's professed desire to become a hard court helion. But winning a big Davis Cup tie, on unfriendly ground, takes the debate to a different, if not necessarily higher, level. It's just how I feel and I can't help myself.

So, with all due respect to all those traditional clay-court fixtures, Nadal needs another title at Monte Carlo or Hamburg about as much as the world needs another folk singer. Sure, Nadal has points to defend. Well, I have cable TV and  mortgage bills to pay. So what? They get paid, end of story. Jet Boy is amazing on clay, end of story.  But the tie pitting Spain against the U.S., on the Amuricans home turf, is a Nadal Warrior Moment waiting to happen. And don't for a moment think that Roddick was unaware of the opportunity Nadal's bail-out presents to a frustrated but admirably unified, dedicated, morale-rich if talent-questionable American squad.

Doug Robson of USA Today asked Roddick how he felt, and Roddick said he was "disappointed." He went on to allude to the "pretty big weekend" (Davis Cup) coming up, and added, "That's obviously playing a part in this process. I'm sorry, I'm just kind of concerned about that."

I felt like leaping out of my chair to give Roddick a lap dance.

I asked Roddick, "So when did Davis Cup enter your mind, when you go hurt?"

He said, "Immediately, immediately. I was thinking about it when I was out there."

Doug Robson of USA Today followed up, asking Andy if he might have played on if the Davis Cup tie were  not on his mind, and he replied: "Probably. I don't know. It (the hamstring) wasn't getting any better. It was getting worse, which isn't a good sign. You can do ifs and all, but the bottom line was that it was definitely in my thoughts and in my head."

So here's a guy potentially passing up Big Points in a Masters Series event just down I-95 from the town where he grew up, deep-sixing the whole deal because of Davis Cup: no points, piss-poor prize money. Can you say "Walk the walk?"

The contrasting strategies of Jet Boy and Roddick are worth nothing, but I'll leave it to you to figure out what they mean, and how important it is; we don't all agree on the priorities under discussion here.But  Nadal decided to skip Davis Cup, if not exactly in order to continue playing here, then at least partly because he's playing well here. Meanwhile, Roddick decided to quit playing here, if not entirely because he wants to play Davis Cup, at least partly because he wants to maximize his chances to take part in Davis Cup.

Two ships, passing in the night.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokivic is serving for the set against Nadal. Stay tuned.