Perfection; Nothing Less: U.S. must win out to win Cup

SAN DIEGO, Calif.—For a few dizzying moments, it looked as if Bethanie Mattek-Sands might use her bright red knee-high socks to kick Flavia Pennetta and her Italian teammates out of the San Diego Sports Arena and onto their behinds. Mattek-Sands, tennis’ tattooed, funky, blue-collar workhorse, almost made her high-and-mighty opponents feel a little foolish for getting off the plane in Southern California with an air of superiority, just because they won the Fed Cup last year (over the U.S., of course) and all of their players rank higher than each of the Americans.

Fighting back from 1-5 down in the first set, Mattek-Sands, the top-ranked American, used big, flat, penetrating groundstrokes to whack her way back against Pennettta, Italy’s No. 2, even going up 6-5 and holding a set point on Pennetta’s serve. It was an immense opportunity to throw a little fright into the Italians, who earlier took a 1-0 lead in this final tie when their lead-off hitter, Francesca Schiavone, picked apart a nervous Fed Cup debutante, 18-year-old CoCo Vandeweghe, 6-2, 6-4.

But, alas, dreams of an upset were fleeting when, on the next point, Mattek-Sands watched helplessly as Pennetta poked a shaky high backhand volley into the open court, sending the score back to deuce. Mattek-Sands thought she’d get another chance when Pennetta hit a double-fault at ad-in, challenged the call and was overruled, prompting the 25-year-old American to glance over at captain Mary Joe Fernandez with a mischievous smile.

Whether she noticed Mattek-Sands’ glee at her misfortune or not, Pennetta remained nonplussed. The Italian made her way into a tiebreaker, which was level after six points. But Mattek-Sands, the Phoenix resident who won back-to-back matches against Russia to lead the U.S. to their second straight Fed Cup final, suddenly began play recklessly, losing four of the next five points on unforced errors, including set point, when she banged a huge forehand return wide.

“I thought I was playing really well and I had my chances,” said Mattek-Sands, who has suffered from a sinus infection and sore throat for the last few days. “I don’t think I would do anything any different.”

With the air clearly sucked from her soul and cramps in both calves and shins (that required ice packs and massaging during nearly every changeover), Mattek-Sands went down meekly in the second set, 6-2, giving the Italians a likely insurmountable 2-0 lead going into tomorrow’s final day of play. Since the Fed Cup went to a home-and-away format in 1995, the U.S. has never come back from a 2-0 deficit to win. No team from any nation has ever rebounded from 2-0 down in the final to claim the championship.

“It is never easy to play your best tennis under these circumstances,” said Pennetta of the noise generated by the 3,538 partisan fans, several of whom traveled from as far away as Ellsworth, Maine, and two others who screeched and squealed while dressed up in shiny neon tennis ball costumes. “I started really good but at 5-1 [in the first set] I started to think too much about having this point and bringing the tie home that I got tense.”

“I am very tired but very happy because I think it is a very good day today,” said Italian captain Corrado Barazzutti. “They played with heart and they won two important matches so we are 2-0. But the match is not finished. We have to stay focused because we want to bring back the Cup.”

The day began with high hopes for Vandeweghe, who has twice served as a practice partner for the U.S. team but had never before been called into service. After listening to her teammate, Liezel Huber, command her during the draw ceremony on Friday to “hit an ace on the first serve,” Vandeweghe did just that, then followed it up with as service winner for 30-0. But after Schiavone threw up a defensive lob at 30-15 that Vandeweghe misjudged and hit a shaky overhead into the net, the tide seemed to change, causing the ocean to swallow her up. She promptly hit two double faults to drop serve and quickly went down 2-0. Despite having game points on each of her service games in the first set, she struggled to hold.

“I guess it was a little bit of rookie nerves,” said Vandeweghe, whose mother, former Olympic swimmer and volleyball player Tauna Vandeweghe, cheered loudly and conspicuously from behind the player bench. “It’s a big occasion, the Fed Cup. I’ve never played Francesca before. It took me a little more time to find the rhythm on the return-of-serve games more than anything.”

Vandeweghe tried valiantly to match Schiavone slice for slice. But the 30-year-old Italian, the world’s seventh-ranked player and the reigning French Open champ, moved seamlessly around the court, chasing down every ball even while holding a commanding lead.

Vandeweghe failed to hold a break point on Schiavone’s serve until the eighth game of the second set, when Schiavone double-faulted to go down 0-40. When Vandeweghe broke serve two points later on the longest and best rally of the match, a roar cascaded throughout the arena. It was short-lived, however, as Vandeweghe lost her next service game and Schiavone closed out the match with a love hold.

“I thought CoCo handled the match very well,” said Fernandez, who refused to confirm Sunday’s singles line-up but hinted that she might substitute Melanie Oudin in to play against Pennetta, depending on whether Mattek-Sands is healthy enough to play the first match of the day against Schiavone. “She handled the occasion and the nerves. She didn’t give anything away and was trying to do the right thing out there. Schiavone was just too good.”

The U.S. team has a ritual when they are playing Fed Cup ties. Each night, after dinner, the team gathers to play a spirited game of charades in which they try to outwit and out-think each other by using body language and hand signals to demonstrate the names of various books and movies. Tomorrow’s job will be to make sure the Fed Cup’s final two matches aren’t rendered meaningless, and that Italy doesn’t take home their second consecutive Fed Cup and third in the last five years. To do so may be the biggest charade of all.