Tennis Davis Cup Final:When the father of a junior player asked Andy Roddick what advice he would give his son, he joked: "Don't ever smell like this."
There were wild celebrations after the US clinched a 32nd Davis Cup victory by taking a 3-0 lead over Russia on Saturday and Roddick wasn't the only one to be drenched in beer after Mike and Bob Bryan, the number one doubles team in the world, defeated the scratch pairing of Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev 7-6, 6-4, 6-2, the US having won both the opening singles on Friday in Portland, Oregon.
The competition has come in for fierce criticism in recent years, with both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the top two singles players in the world, having skipped ties in order to save their energy.
Frequently the Americans have chipped in with their own complaints, suggesting the cup should be played every second year, but their run to the final notably quelled such talk.
In 2009 the calendar will be reshaped anyway, while the US's success, their first win since 1995 in Moscow, will have given the tournament fresh impetus there.
Already thoughts are turning to next year when Roddick and co begin their defence away to Austria. "It's a tough one," said their captain, Patrick McEnroe.
"But this team has come a long way. I think the experience that these guys have had over the years was really key towards handling the away matches and also handling the emotion of the home matches really well."
Russia, who have won the trophy twice, the first time against France in Paris five years ago, were the defending champions, but even their wily coach, Shamil Tarpischev, could not conjure up any significant surprises on this occasion.
He left out his number one player, Davydenko, for Friday's singles, believing him not to be mentally ready after the recent match-rigging accusations that remain under investigation, but it made no difference.
Perhaps the more significant was the refusal of Marat Safin, after another hugely disappointing season, to take part. Safin, at his best, is inspirational.
Many had queried the US Tennis Association's decision to play the final in Portland, on the west coast, but the intimate atmosphere worked in the team's favour. "To be here and bring the Cup back to the States is an amazing feeling," said Roddick.
The US had a tough start, away to the Czech Republic on clay, but once through that they beat Spain at home and Sweden away.
"When we won against the Czechs we thought things could break right for us," said McEnroe.
"To go to Sweden and win away again in the semis was big and we caught a little break when Argentina lost to Sweden. They would have been very tough on clay."
The Bryans, winners of five Grand Slam titles together, had lost just one doubles match in 13 Davis Cup appearances going into Saturday's game.
Although they squandered an early break point off Andreev's serve in the opening set, they won the tie-break 7-4 on an Andreev double-fault after coming from 3-1 down.
They then broke Davydenko in the first game of the second set and held serve to establish a commanding two-set advantage.
There was to be no way back for the Russians, with Davydenko broken twice in the third set, in the third and seventh games, and the Americans sealed the win with a determined volley.
"Since 2003 our mission was to win the Davis Cup but I never imagined we'd win it in front of a home crowd," said Bob Bryan. "We knew the tie-break at the end of the first set would be crucial because it is hard to break on this court. But we can die happy - our careers are set."
Roddick who, with James Blake, set the Americans on their way with singles victory on Friday, said the win was as sweet as winning the US Open: "Winning the US Open, trying to compete for Slams, you're playing for a lot of selfish reasons. To come in here and to share this with these guys, and to have developed the friendships and everything that goes along with it . . . it's just amazing."
