2018 Fed Cup final will match Team USA, Czech Republic

Team USA  / Celebrating its victory over France.
(L-R) Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens,
CoCo Vandeweghe, Bethanie Mattek-Sands,
captain Kathy Rinaldi.

It seems only fitting that the two most successful – and dominant – teams in the history of the Fed Cup competition, the United States and the Czech Republic, will decide this year's championship later this year.

The Czech Republic, which has won five the past seven Fed Cup titles, will host defending champion United States on November 10-11, likely in Prague. The Americans have captured 18 championships – most in Fed Cup history – and are looking to add to their impressive trophy collection. (The Fed Cup is the women's equivalent to the men's Davis Cup.)

Over the weekend, the United States advanced to its second consecutive Fed Cup final with a 3-2 victory over France in Aix-en-Provence by winning three of four singles rubbers on the red clay inside Arena du Pays d'Aix. World No. 9 Sloane Stephens, who went 2-0 against the French, was solid in her 6-2, 6-0 win over No. 20 Kiki Mladenovic on Sunday. It put the Americans ahead 2-1, needing just one rubber to advance. Then, No. 13 Madison Keys substituted for No. 16 CoCo Vandeweghe and clinched the tie for Team USA with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over No. 122 Pauline Parmentier.

"I think all the credit goes to the players," said U.S. team captain Kathy Rinaldi, who took over Team USA in 2017 and is undefeated in five Fed Cup ties. "They played some great tennis. We had some great matches and I think that really stands out."

After her tie-clinching win, Keys said that she was "really happy to get the win. Obviously, Sloane playing some great matches and getting that final win is really, really special."

Team USA has reached back-to-back Fed Cup finals for the first time since finishing runner-up in 2009-10 and last won consecutive Fed Cup titles in 1999-2000.

Meanwhile, the 10-time Fed Cup champion Czech Republic moved into the final round for the sixth time in the last eight years with an impressive 4-1 road victory over Germany in Stuttgart. "It was a very tough tie," Czech Republic team captain Petr Pala said after his team's triumph. "It was an outstanding performance from each of the (singles) winners. ... The tennis was unbelievable."

Pala's team is anchored soundly by World No. 10 Petra Kvitova and No. 6 Karolina Pliskova at singles. Against Germany, Kvitova beat both No. 11 Julia Goerges and No. 12 Angelique Kerber without dropping a set for her 29th and 30th Fed Cup rubber wins. Pliskova is 13-4 in her Fed Cup singles career. The Czech Republic doubles team with be very formidable with Barbora Strycova and Katerina Siniakova paired together. Both are ranked in the Top 20 in the world.

"They've shown the last five years they are the best," German team captain Jens Gerlach said of the Czech Republic team after Sunday's tie.

During his weekly The Tennis Podcast, co-host David Law of BBC5 Live gave props to Kvitova. "Petra Kvitova was in just the most devastating form," he said. "She absolutely thrashed Julia Goerges and Angelique Kerber in Stuttgart. I think it will be a very interesting final at the end of the year."

Like the Czech Republic, Team USA has an abundance of talent to draw upon. "I've always said that's the toughest part about being a captain is looking at the depth and looking at all of the players," said Rinaldi. "Hopefully, everybody is available and we're looking forward to it." Whether the Williams sisters – No. 8 Venus and former No. 1 Serena – will be a part of Team USA for the Fed Cup final remains to be decided. While either would be a welcome addition to an already elite lineup, the current quartet of players that beat France in the semifinals – Stephens, Keys, Vandeweghe and former No. 1 doubles player Bethanie Mattek-Sands – are all great competitors who want to win.

While there's a lot of time between now and the November final to finalize her team, Rinaldi looks forward to the challenge of facing the Czech Republic. The U.S. owns a 10-2 career win-loss record against the Czech Republic in all Fed Cup meetings. "We know going into the final is going to be tough," she said. "Czech Republic has tremendous depth as well. They have had a lot of success, so it should be very interesting."

Cover photo: U.S. Fed Cup team by Ashley Marshall/USTA.
A version of this blog post first appeared in Tennis TourTalk (www.tennis-tourtalk.com).

On film: Borg vs. McEnroe, tightly strung rivalry

For 1 hour and 37 minutes on a recent Sunday morning, I felt like I had gone back in time to the summer of 1980 and Sweden's Björn Borg was the top tennis player in the world, in pursuit of a record-breaking fifth Wimbledon gentlemen's singles championship. 

From 1974 to 1981, Borg dominated tennis, both on and off the court. He became the first male player in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles. He possessed a powerful forehand, perfected the two-fisted backhand, and was rigorously disciplined to a fault. On the other side of the net from the 24-year-old Borg was none other than John McEnroe, three years Borg's junior: young, American, talented, abrasive. When you think of Borg vs. McEnroe, you think of tennis, former rivals, best enemies. They were the antithesis of each other.

During a screening at the Cinema Club in Washington, D.C. on March 25, I watched Borg vs. McEnroe, which premiered in limited release in the U.S. last Friday. (It played last fall on the film festival circuit in Europe.) It is directed by Danish filmmaker Janus Metz with the screenplay provided by Swedish writer and director Ronnie Sandahl. Sverrir Gudnason is a dead ringer for Borg while Shia LaBeouf portrays McEnroe.

Borg vs. McEnroe focuses on Borg's rise to prominence, starting from his youth through the 1980 Wimbledon Championships. We learn how Borg's coach, Lennart Bergelin (played brilliantly by Stellan Skarsgård), helps him to channel his competitive – obsessive – behavior off the court so that he can focus on his impulsive game on the court. Meanwhile, we also learn of McEnroe's complete obsession with Borg prior to their big Centre Court championship match.

"Essentially, the movie implies that, despite appearances to the contrary, Borg and McEnroe were inwardly very similar – and different mainly in their behavior. What the drama suggests is that the pressure to maintain appearances, to keep his furies under control and channeled, exacted a very high emotional price on Borg," writes critic Richard Brody in The New Yorker.

"I'm just like everybody else ... I'm not a machine," says Borg, during a testy exchange with a reporter on the eve of his showdown with McEnroe.

Overall, I found Borg vs. McEnroe enjoyable. The fourth set, 34-point tie-break, during which McEnroe saved five match points, takes up nearly the final third of the film. It is at times very riveting and played to its full dramatic effect. The points are fast and so are the edits. While the film focuses on the "Fire and Ice" rivalry between the two future Hall of Fame players, I feel I learned a lot more about the complexity of Borg's character – think tightly strung perfectionist – than I did of McEnroe. However, seeing McEnroe's bad on-court behavior recreated – yelling at both the chair umpire and at pigeons, too – brought back memories for which he's forever remembered. "You cannot be serious!"

Borg vs. McEnroe is presented in both English and Swedish with subtitles. I highly recommend this film.

An understanding of racial justice in the shadow of statues

In the Shadow of Statues, which
was published March 20, is
on the New York Times
Bestseller List.

"These statues are not just stone and metal. They were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge." 

– Mitch Landrieu, from In the Shadow of Statues

New Orleans is one of the great multicultural cities in the world. It is also a racially divided city that has dealt with its fair share of poverty and urban violence. In spite of all of its troubles, the Big Easy remains a beloved cultural treasure to everyone who visits thanks to its rich tradition of funky jazz music and the beauty and grace of its amazing food.

Enter Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans since 2010, who has been an important catalyst in helping his city rebuild from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. As the son of a former state legislator and mayor of New Orleans – who was a huge force in the integration of that city in the 1960s and 1970s – and the brother of a former U.S. senator from Louisiana, Landrieu grew up with a progressive education in the racially divided Crescent City among America's lingering Confederate monuments.

At a time when the issue of racism has become resurgent "with seemingly tacit approval from the highest levels of government and when too many Americans have a misplaced nostalgia for a time and place that never existed," Landrieu has written In the Shadow of Statues – a book that's a must read.

In the Shadow of Statues is equal parts memoir, history, and a "prescription for finally confronting America's most painful legacy." As a white southerner confronting his city's past history, Landrieu contributes a very strong voice to our national conversation about race in America today by taking on many difficult issues related to it, including slavery and inequality.

In praising In the Shadow of Statues, Walter Isaacson, author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs, writes: "With a balance of humility and conviction, he recounts his path to a more profound understanding of racial justice and explains how this journey led him to remove the Confederate monuments in New Orleans. It's an important book for everyone in America to read, because it shows how intellectual honesty can lead to moral clarity."

Mitch Landrieu at Politics & Prose Bookstore
in Washington, D.C. last week.

Last week, my wife and I attended a standing room-only book event at Politics & Prose Bookstore in northwest Washington, D.C., featuring a conversation between Landrieu and Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, before a thoughtful and engaging audience, that was followed by a 30-minute Q & A period and a book signing.

"There's a difference between remembering and revering history," said Landrieu, who addressed the people of New Orleans in May 2017 about his decision to take down and remove four Confederate monuments, including the statue of the famous southern Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The affected statues represent a mere four-year period of U.S. history, from 1861-65, but a searing one, too. While Landrieu said that the decision to remove the monuments was a difficult one, it was a right one, too. It was about eradicating history.

"We were on the wrong side of history," Landrieu told the Politics & Prose audience very matter-of-factly. "These statues were erected to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge. For decades, these statues have cast a long shadow on society, particularly African-Americans."

Lee Circle before the Confederate monument
of Robert E. Lee was removed in 2017.

Landrieu says In the Shadow of Statues is an invitation to stand and sit in other people's shoes. He recalled for his Politics & Prose audience a conversation he once shared with his dear friend, the famous jazz musician and educator – and New Orleans native son – Wynton Marsalis, who helped him see the truth about the city's exclusionary attitudes. "'Hey, man,'" Landrieu recalled the trumpeter saying to him. "'You should take the statue of Robert E. Lee down. Do you know how it got there and who put it up?'"

In the book, Landrieu expands on his conversation with Marsalis.

"I don't like the fact that Lee Circle is named Lee Circle."

"Why is that?"

"Let me help you see it through my eyes. Who is he? What does he represent? And in that most prominent space in the city of New Orleans, does that space reflect who we are, who we want to be, or who we are?"

Suddenly, Landrieu was listening.

Later in their conversation, according to the mayor, Marsalis added, "'Did you know Louis Armstrong left the city and never came back because of that statue? He did not even want to be buried in his hometown. You ever think about what Robert E. Lee means to someone black?'"

Landrieu emphasized that there's a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it. "I think there are a lot of people who are struggling with the notion that the South fought for a cause that was reviled," he said. When you make sense of it, monuments are usually reserved for winners not losers. The Confederate monuments celebrated the losing side of the Civil War.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu

As Landrieu remarked back during his May 2017 speech, "For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth."

And, as Landrieu writes, "Here is the essential truth: We are better together than we are apart.

"Indivisibility is our essence."

Near the end of his conversation at Politics & Prose, Landrieu said, "If we are going to move forward as a country, we must confront the issue of race head on. Our diversity is what makes this country great.

"We need to understand our history. We need to tell the whole story."

Photo credits: Book cover courtesy of Amazon.com. Politics & Prose audience courtesy of @PoliticsProse Twitter. Robert E. Lee statue courtesy of New Orleans Advocate. Mitch Landrieu courtesy of Cheryl Gerber.