Andy Roddick: Portland Is Not Like Moscow!

Andy Roddick just destroyed Dmitry Tursonov 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in the first match of the Davis Cup finals here at Memorial Coliseum, and people are fired up, to say the least.
Here's the last point of the match:
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As you can see, things were getting crazy. But then, in a post-match interview on the court, Andy really won us all over:
[youtube 6uX8Wq6pcsU]
Yes!!! We ARE different than Moscow!!! I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I'll take it!!!

Up next is James Blake against Mikhail Youzhny. Roddick's victory should take a little pressure off Blake, which is a good thing for US tennis fans.
It's kind of putting me in a weird position as far as what to root for here. The chest-bumping, fist-pumping twin brothers Mike and Bob Bryan, who are playing doubles for the USA tomorrow, are far and away the best doubles team in the world and almost never lose. So if Blake wins, that will probably do it for the weekend (it will be 2-0 in the best of 5 competition going into tomorrow's doubles). But I was pretty excited to have everything come down a pressure-cooker final day of singles on Sunday. It's confusing. Do I root against the American?

Anyway, from my seat on the floor of the giant media room in the basement of Memorial Coliseum (all the "chairs," at "tables," have been snagged by people who had their act together more than me this morning), I can see on a TV screen that Blake is warming up, so I'm going to head back up to the court. After I check out the media food options, which look like some chicken skewers and some kind of reddish soup-type-thing.



Follow our live coverage of the Davis Cup here.