| Davis Cup Final through the eyes of Barry Cowan |
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| Thursday, 04 December 2008 22:47 |
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As the final doesn’t start until Friday Wednesday is a day to recover. In the morning we took our first trip to the stadium. No cars seem to stop so fortunately it was only a 10 mins car journey. The arena is normally used for basketball, but the organisers had prepared the venue exceptionally well with a 10,000 capacity. To our astonishment 2,500 kids were invited free to watch the practice and were cheering both teams as they geared up for play on Friday. Lunch time we again had the great combo in Argentina for the 2nd successive meal, their amazing steaks and red wine. A much needed siesta was required after that. Thursday is always the draw day. We arrived at an impressive venue for the draw overlooking the sea and 500 media were in attendance, just an incredible interest in what was Argentina 3rd biggest sporting event after the world cup football in 1978 and the Pan Am games also in Mar Del Plata 13 years ago. After the draw we do all interviews for the final. The Argentine team were first and Barry Millns interviewed Mancini, Nalbanian and Del Potro. I spoke to a very relaxed and charming Spanish team. Their captain Emilio Sanchez is always very helpful, lopez and Ferrer were also looking forward to the tie but admitted they were nervous. The interviews are all organised, 4 TV crews taking their turn. TYC were the Argentinian broadcasters, TVE the Spanish and also the ITF and Sky. You are only permitted to ask 3 to 4 questions. If you ask more, you can guarantee you will get a poke in your back from the teams PR person. As we had time in the afternoon Barry and myself played golf at the local golf course, a true links course, difficult greens and very windy, it was like home. A Davis Cup tie wouldn’t be for real without a media party, professional tango dancers were present. Thankfully we weren’t asked to join in. Strictly come dancing is safe for another year. With play starting on the Friday at 1pm we arrived at the venue at 11am. The 2 hours before is to watch practice, make sure that as commentators you haven’t missed anything that you might need for the 2 singles matches and also to do a 2 minute piece to camera back to London which is always shown at the beginning of Sky’s coverage. In the 2 mins we have to give an insight to what we’ve seen and heard in the days leading up to play and our thoughts on the day ahead. Oh dear I predicted a first Davis Cup triumph for the hosts and 2-0 after the opening days singles. The commentary box was a temporary structure and was outside the main stadium so we didn’t fully realise the amazing noise the crowd were making but I certainly did when I interviewed the players after the matches. It certainly rivalled the bull ring in Madrid. Straight after the match I interview the winners, and also at the end of the day the captains. Interviewing the winners is of course easier but it can sometimes be more difficult as it’s not always easy to hear their answers when the crowd are still going bonkers which was certainly the case after Nalbandian gave Argentina an expected 1-0 lead. The routine for Saturday was the same but as the weekend developed the feeling amongst the press was changing. Spain were playing better and with an ever increasing belief. The Argentinians were having to fend off any rumours their was friction within the camp and Nalbandian had to pay a fine after missing a mandatory press conference when he failed to turn up to his interview after his doubles loss on Saturday. The plan on Sunday was to do the stand up by the famous Davis Cup country before play. Barry and I had decided not to mention the supposedly big argument with Calleri and Nalbandian after the doubles on Saturday as we had no firm evidence anything had happened. We mentioned the impact the 2 reserves Verdasco and Acasuso would have in their vital match. Thankfully I got this one correct. On this occasion it was a race against time, as we were finishing the interview one of the security men decided deliberately to walk in front of the camera. He felt important by doing that just as we were finishing the interview. Television at it’s finest. We only had time for one more take as you are always under pressure to have it ready before the show starts in London. This is an area of TV that I really enjoy. We were under pressure to get it right. This is the buzz of live TV. Thankfully and to the relief of our producer Sarah there were no more mishaps. The scenes when Verdasco won Spain the Davis Cup for the 3rd time were amazing. I interviewed Verdasco immediately after his fine win and he was understandably lost for words. All credit to the Argentine supporters who were very gracious but it was time for the Spanish to celebrate. I stayed courtside for the presentation and wondered how good it would be to captain a winning side in this incredible team competition. We were very fortunate to be invited to the official champions dinner on the Sunday evening where you get to hear the teams speeches and join in the fun, but it was soured that the local team didn’t win the Davis cup for the 1st time. After the dinner we all celebrated long into the early morning, the Spanish team were also present and all their team members were quite right to enjoy a fantastic team performance in beating Argentina in their own back yard. The Sky team stayed an extra 2 days and I took the time to play 2 days of golf, where I was accompanied by the TYC host at the Buenos Aires golf club, Tiger Woods won the World golf championships in 2000 for the USA on the same course. It was a good job I had plenty of balls as I hit many into the water. It has been a long tennis year but a memorable one with some golden moments. Who could ever forget the Federer V Nadal Wimbledon final, but also it was a great to see Andy Murray’s march to the top. What a year 2009 could be!!! Have a good Xmas. See you next year.
      
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A memorable tennis year ended on Sunday with the underdogs Spain beating Argentina and it was a great 3 days of tension packed tennis. Working for Sky Sports we follow the World group of the Davis Cup through its entirety and have been fortunate that this year we’ve been to a variety of places with different cultures. We started in Moscow in the 1st Round where Russia beat Serbia (with Djokovic), the 2nd round took us to Winston Salem in the USA (the home of Crispy Crème donuts and they were good) where the defending champions USA beat France. After the hectic period in the summer the semi final resumed and in Madrid, Spain beat the Americans in the bull ring with 20,000 passionate Spanish supporters, they were as loud as I’ve ever experienced, similar decibels to the big football matches. 
