U.S. Rookie Shakes Austria

Where was James Blake?

That was the question on hundreds of minds within the congregation of 5,143 Friday at the Mohegan Sun Casino where Robby Ginepri, not far from the gaming tables, was all but rolling snake eyes on a tennis court in his Davis Cup debut.

This is the neighborhood of James Blake, the Harvard refugee from Fairfield, a U.S. team regular the last two years, and his Connecticut compatriots were second-guessing captain Patrick McEnroe’s selection of 21-year-old Ginepri over their favorite son. But Blake was nowhere near.

And Austrian left-hander Jurgen Melzer was beating up on Ginepri in the first of the best-of-five series with a two-set lead and a 2-2 tie in the third set.

Davis Cup jitters for a rookie aren’t news. (Remember Pete Sampras’ collapsing against Henri Leconte and Guy Forget in his 1991 debut, the final lost to France?) Ginepri is hardly in the Sampras league, but rookies never seem immune to what Ginepri called “the pressure of playing for my teammates and my country instead of just myself.”

But Ginepri was buoyed by a conversation with McEnroe after the second set.

“Have you ever come back from two sets down?” McEnroe asked.

“No. I’ve only played five sets once.” (And lost.)

“Well, today will be the first time,” McEnroe counseled. “Melzer can’t keep it up. Just firm up and play your game. Make him hit more balls.”

“The captain has excellent foresight, doesn’t he?” giggled Andy Roddick much later, after his serve-blasting 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory over another left-hander, Stefan Koubek -- including a record-setting delivery of 150 mph -- had sent the U.S. ahead in the first-round series, 2-0. The Camarillo combine of the Bryan twins -- Bob and Mike -- can settle it today in the doubles against -- who? The Austrians were undecided.

Confirming McEnroe’s prognosis, the goateed Ginepri, from Marietta, Ga., a few whiskers from defeat, did win in five sets for the first time: 6-7 (6), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Not only was it a gigantic rebound for himself, it was the first time a rookie in U.S. Davis Cup history had accomplished the feat in his debut.

“I love James Blake, a wonderful player for us,” McEnroe said, “but Robby has been playing better than James or Mardy Fish the last few months, and I felt he deserved this chance. I had a lot of opportunities for the lineup, a blessing, and I thought Robby would be stronger for us in this situation.”

It took a long time in the rookie’s three-hour ordeal before he could get his powerful groundstrokes into tune and make his wayward serve behave. The tentativeness was evident when he failed to serve out the opening set at 5-3, despite holding a set point, and double-faulted the game away. Then Melzer went wobbly in the first-set tiebreaker, blowing four set points from 6-2, only to benefit from Ginepri’s double fault to reach 6-7. Whereupon the aggressive Austrian won it by serving and volleying, a tactic that propped him up through the first two sets.

But once the American reached a 3-2 lead in the third set, he didn’t sag again.

“I wanted to start the fourth and fifth strongly with early breaks,” Ginepri said -- and did.

In the second match, Roddick’s unbreakable serve pierced Koubek for 19 aces and 13 service winners. After three consecutive aces in the eighth game, Hurricane Andy whooshed a ball at 150 mph. Koubek got his racket on it to no avail, and Roddick had shattered the record of 149 he had shared with Greg Rusedski.