U.S. nears Davis Cup title

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Fear of five.

It permeated Memorial Coliseum when James Blake lost a third-set tiebreaker and flirted with dropping the fourth against Mikhail Youzhny in the Davis Cup final. No doubt it ran through the minds of U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe and an increasingly nervous-looking Andy Roddick as they watched Blake inch toward that unsettling territory of a fifth set.

1-10.

That happens to be Blake’s five-set record. Even one television commentator joked that it came against “a 53-year-old,” at this year’s U.S Open. (Actually, Fabrice Santoro is a sprightly 34.)

The solution? Finishing in four.

Blake won the last five points of his fourth-set tiebreaker and put the U.S. on the verge of winning its first Davis Cup since 1995, taking a 2-0 lead against Russia on Friday. Twins Mike and Bob Bryan of Camarillo could clinch it today against the scheduled team of Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko, though the Russians could make a late change.

“I’m not sure they’re going to be able to sleep tonight,” McEnroe said of the Bryans. “They get pumped up for breakfast.”

The U.S. got to that position following vastly differing singles performances. Roddick opened with an emphatic 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory against an overwhelmed and passive Dmitry Tursunov, hitting 25 aces in 1 hour 53 minutes.

Said Roddick: “It’s amazing. I’ve thought about it for a long time. That last game when [the crowd] stood up was probably one of the coolest moments of my career so far.”

Blake’s third-set hiccup -- and another when he was broken serving for the match at 5-4 in the fourth -- provided more than a dose of drama before he defeated Youzhny, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3), in about 3 1/2 hours.

He called it “the biggest win of his career” and felt it answered the continual questions about his mental fortitude.

“I wanted to show people I was here to play my best tennis . . . and not have these people make kind of ridiculous questions about whether a top 10 player or a singles player on a Davis Cup finals team is mentally tough or not, because you don’t get here without being mentally tough,” said Blake, who had 16 aces.

“Obviously, there are guys that are mentally tougher than some others, but that’s comparing the .001 percent to the other .0001 percent that might be better than them. It’s not easy out there. I wanted to prove that I was tough enough to hang in a tough situation.”

Meanwhile, the Russians were facing that time-honored tradition of second-guessing, over the decision to bench the fourth-ranked Davydenko.

“I think that our best chances to beat Blake today were with Youzhny out of all the players that we have today,” said Russian captain Shamil Tarpischev. “I don’t think that Davydenko would have beaten Blake today.

“It was just that fortune went to Blake. I think if we’d have had a fifth set, we would have won.”

Davis Cup karma finally seemed to be on the side of the Americans. This was for all those dreary opening days, ranging from an Italian ambush in Milwaukee in 1998 or far too many clay-court venues to mention.

McEnroe took over in 2001 and Roddick and Blake played for him that year, and the Bryans came on board in 2004. To say that this team is close is a vast understatement.

Mardy Fish and Robby Ginepri, who have been part of the long-and-winding Davis Cup journey over the years, are here as practice partners. And the entire team has gotten together to write a letter to the U.S. Tennis Assn. requesting that it obtain a wild card for Ginepri into the Australian Open, Blake said on Friday.

It’s just another indication of the tight team atmosphere.

“I think a lot of people talked about the highs after a win in Davis Cup are a bit higher and the lows are a bit lower,” Blake said. “It means a lot after some lows of losing tough matches to have your teammates pick you up. That’s what these guys have done for me any time I have had that situation where I’m a little down on myself. They pick me up right away and get me ready.”

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com