HoYay -- originating from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the show, not the movie), refers to "Homoeroticism, Yay!"
And Davis Cup, particularly yesterday when it was all doubles all the time, brought the HoYay in Costco sized palettes.
The Mike and Mardy show kept the US in it with a hard earned victory over Team Hotness (Tobasco and Feli Lopez) 46 64 63 46 64.
Spain continues to lead the tie 2-1, needing just one win in today's reverse rubbers to clinch a spot in the finals. A-Rod vs. Nadal will be the first rubber.
Russia is also still in their tie with Argentina, grinding out a five set doubles win over Nalby/Canas, 62 61 67(9) 63 86. Was Russia's drop in form in the second two sets the result of Russian headcasiness? Or was it strategy:
The mischievous Tursunov said afterwards that Russia’s captain Shamil Tarpischev had wanted a five-sets win more than straight sets. ‘When we were up two sets to love he basically said "keep David out there as much as you can because if you win in three sets it’s not really helpful because he’s still going to be able to play tomorrow, so we tried our best to keep him out on the court."
In some ways it is Argentina’s worst case scenario. The captain Alberto Mancini never intended to play Nalbandián in the doubles, but gambled on him after his quick win over Igor Andreev on Friday. Now he’s played five sets in the doubles, and must play a live rubber on Sunday. And the way Tursunov played, it would surprise no-one here if Nalbandián faces Tursunov in the first of the reverse singles.
Either way, Argentina leads the tie 2-1, needing a win to get to the finals and probably play Spain.
Ah, the Kings of HoYay! It was a Beijing redux with the hugging and the totally inappropriate and somewhat creepy laying on of hands by TMF. But the two man Davis Cup team of Stan and Rog handily defeated Belgium 3-0 and as such will be promoted to the main World Group next year.
And finally, Serbia navigated what could have been a very tricky tie with the Slovak Republic, eventually winning 3-0 with Nenad and Viktor's doubles win. Like Switzerland, Serbia will also be promoted to World Group status next year.
With Serbia and Switzerland winning their World Group Playoff ties and earning spots in the World Group in 2009, FINALLY, Davis Cup is going to be super interesting. Because it was just WRONG that the top three players in the world weren't in the same Davis Cup group.
Too bad Great Britain's doubles team lost today. I was really hoping they would also make it. As of now, it's not looking too good for Muzza. Then again, why should I care when he clearly does not. Andy has never made it a secret that he puts his career before his country, and the "niggling injury" that caused John Lloyd not to select him for yesterday's doubles play was weak. Andy will play Juergen Melzer today, who gave Andy enough bulletin board material a few days ago by calling him a choker.
