There are few places to get higher on Davis Cup than a tie in Bogota at 8,000 feet, though no doubt U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe has reminded his squad more than once this past week about how low things got the only other time the Americans went to Colombia in 1974.
Heavily favored, the United States team of Harold Solomon, Eddie Dibbs, Charlie Pasarell and Erik van Dillen never handled the altitude or the raucous crowds and slinked back home a 4-1 loser.
So here we are 36 years later and, of course, the suspects have changed with John Isner, Mardy Fish, Sam Querrey and young Ryan Harrison carrying the flag for the U.S., but the altitude has not changed for this tie, which begins Friday.
“It’s a problem if you’re not used to playing in Bogota,” said 1974 Davis Cup hero Ivan Molina, who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “You have to be there enough time to get used to it. If you don’t get used to it, once you have to run a little bit, you feel it.”
Molina now works for the ITF, coaching juniors and trying to prepare them for professional careers. Though he won’t be in Colombia for this critical tie, he’ll be watching on television and hoping countrymen Alejandro Falla and Santiago Giraldo can duplicate with he and Jairo Velasco did in 1974.
This is McEnroe’s final tie after nine years as captain and if Colombia uses the elements and a couple of hot performances from Falla and Giraldo to produce the upset, it will be an ignominious departure from the younger of the McEnroe boys.
This is what’s known as a World Group qualifying match. The winner goes into the 16-country World Group that competes for the Davis Cup in 2011. The loser is out of the World Group for at least this coming year, and the U.S. has not missed the World Group cut since 1988.
McEnroe got his team to Colombia early to start dealing with the altitude and none of his four players has ever competed in an ATP or team event in Bogota, so it’s a bit of a mystery how the U.S. will handle the elements.
Obviously, it was no problem for Molina and Velasco in 1974. Each played two singles, on Friday and Sunday, and they combined for the doubles on Saturday, which provided the U.S. with its only points.
Going into the final day trailing 2-1, van Dillen was beaten in four sets by Molina to clinch the tie.
Your greatest moment in tennis? I asked Molina. “No,” he replied. “One of the greatest. But later than year I won the mixed doubles at the French Open with Martina Navratilova.”
The ’74 tie was on TV, which must have brought much of the country to a standstill, though there were no victory parades in the streets and, while Molina was very happy with the result, he wasn’t delighted with what happened after the tie.
“The (tennis) federeration never really took advantage of what we did,” he said. “That would have been a great moment to promote tennis to young people, build more courts.”
It didn’t happen and tennis did not flourish in Colombia for many years. Now, things are better. Falla, who led Roger Federer two sets to love in the first round at Wimbledon this year, is ranked No. 64 and Giraldo No. 61.
McEnroe had a tough decision to make in selecting his four players. For the first time since 2003, there will not be either Mike or Bob Bryan in a Davis Cup match. Though they are almost an automatic doubles point, they were passed over because McEnroe was concerned about the altitude enough to bring four singles players.
The tie begins Friday with two singles, doubles on Saturday and reverse singles on Sunday.