Wally's view
January 28, 2004
tennisaustralia.com.au

Wally Masur is the 'behind-scenes' leader of the Optus Australian Davis Cup Team who, together with captain John Fitzgerald, steered the Aussies to their 28th victory in 2003.

Masur won three titles during his playing days and competed in 16 ties for Australia with an overall win-loss record of 17-15 (16-14 singles, 1-1 doubles). While he was never part of a winning Australian Davis Cup side, Masur captured 15 doubles titles and reached the singles semifinals of the 1987 Australian Open and 1993 US Open.

His contribution to Australian tennis continues to evolve in his role as Davis Cup coach. Here, he discusses the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas First Round tie against Sweden with Kim Trengove.


The Swedish have a completely different line-up?

They’ve got a couple of young guys, and that’s always a surprise. Our guys aren’t that familiar with Soderling. They know Johansson pretty well because he goes out with Lleyton’s sister. He and Lleyton are sparring partners quite frequently. Yeah, two fresh faces in their team and I think that’s exciting.

Soderling really came up last year...

He played well at Wimbledon last year - he had a couple of good wins. I didn’t realise he was that young. He’s a young kid and he’s got a really awkward game. Enqvist’s been there and done that and maybe he’ll stake a claim to play singles, I don’t know. You’d think Soderling’s definitely a chance.

What about the doubles?

Enqvist played doubles last time. Enqvist-Bjorkman. They didn’t fire as a team. Maybe they’re more comfortable now. That’s where I think maybe Johansson will play. He’s a big kid – 6’5" – he serves big, he’s got a good net game so I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays doubles.

Is there any danger that you could lose?

Yes, there’s always a danger. Two unknown quantities in Soderling and Johansson. If they do play, maybe they’ll come out of their shoes. Our players have had a pretty long summer campaign and hopefully they can lift themselves back up. I think it’s a bit strange to win it in December and there you are defending it in February. It all came around very quickly. There’s almost no time to savour the moment for the players. You need a certain energy to play well in Davis Cup and hopefully it’s there.

How do you switch the players' attention from individual concerns (as at Australian Open 2004) to a team environment?

In Davis Cup, you’re with each other all day, every day. From the moment you get up you have breakfast together, practise together and you’ve got to keep putting in to make it worthwhile for everybody else. Our guys are all very aware of this. I’m hoping that when the guys arrive there will be a nice, positive vibe and they will be up for it. That’s part of the battle: to be in that right emotional state and be ready to go.

What was the secret behind forming such a tight-knit team?

Some people have given us (Masur and Optus Australian Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald) credit for the team travelling well and it did fall into place nicely. We were a little bit apprehensive when Mark played his first tie with us (against Britain, First Round 2003), it was a bit of a new-look team.

Within five minutes he and Lleyton were practising together, they played some doubles together. They had a genuinely good relationship and they enjoyed training together, so much so that in Sweden we could not separate them on the court. Fitzy and I are pretty reasonable sort of blokes.

We don’t swing wildly left or right, we just kind of try to keep it pretty simple and provide a good environment for the guys when they come in to train. There’s a common goal: they all want to win, and they’re quite willing to put their individual idiosyncrasies aside and do well for the team.

How badly do they want to win this year now that they’ve done it?

I will be interested to see. When we played India (September 2002 qualifying round), they said ‘This is the first match of 2003.’ They had it in their mind that they were going to win it. They had the team to do it; if they were fit and healthy they believed they could win it. There was a collective will there.

They were on a real high for a month after winning in December. Let’s see when they get to Adelaide.

I’m confident they will play well and it will be a good tie.

What about Todd Reid? When is he likely to play a live rubber?

He’s pretty close. He’s played some really good players over the summer, he beat some very good players. Davis Cup’s best of five. Sometimes you look at results in best of three-set tournaments but best of five is a tough assignment. It’s a different style of game, it requires different skills. The pressure, the duration, the energy that’s expended – there’s a whole set of circumstances there that make some people great Davis Cup players and others wilt. He’s ready when he’s ready. Flip and Lleyton are playing some pretty good tennis in Davis Cup so he might have to wait and bide his time.

Would you rather have been a player in a winning Davis Cup side, or coach, as you are now?

You do get a lot of satisfaction out of being involved in a winning side in a coaching or management level, there’s no doubt about it. Last year, my overriding emotion was relief. Knowing what the guys had been through and the pressure they were under. They played some big ties, and it saps your energy. Having lost a tie to France (2001 Final). We couldn’t really lose two. I just felt relieved that they did it.

Watching these guys now, what qualities do you wish you had possessed as a player?

This is a very talented team. Wayne has a fantastic serve and an amazing array of shots to back it up. He’s found the belief with Todd (Woodbridge) to play some sparkling doubles. Todd’s a bit of a genius on the doubles court, then you look at Lleyton and his will to win and Flip’s array of talent. I was a workhorse, these guys are a little bit different. They’re just very talented. They’re all good -different builds, different personalities, different games. It makes them a pretty formidable team