PARIS -- Coming into this tie, France certainly was a favorite but mainly because they were playing at home on clay. Put these same players in the United States on a hard court and the Americans are favored.

	Mal-Adjusted
	Washington Former ATP Tour pro MaliVai Washington is providing ESPN.com with in-depth analysis during the Davis Cup semifinal. Washington, a tennis analyst for ESPN, reached the 1996 Wimbledon final.

Going into this first day, I thought that it would be 1-1 at the end of the day instead of 2-0 France. I thought Andy Roddick would win against Arnaud Clement and that James Blake and Sebastien Grosjean were going to have a close match, knowing that Grosjean was a big favorite simply because of his clay-court experience. This was Blake's 15th match on clay and his record stands at 7-8, whereas Grosjean has over 60 wins on clay, so the experience levels were like night and day.

The French team played tremendous tennis Friday. Clement, after getting destroyed in the first set, played two of the best sets of his life -- and what better place to do it than at a Davis Cup tie in front of 15,000 fans in your home country.

Grosjean got off to such a good start, or maybe it was Blake getting off to such a slow start, but a two-set-to-love lead was too much for Blake to overcome even though he was very close to pushing the match into a fifth set.

Now, the task for the United States is almost insurmountable. Only one time in its 100-year history at the Davis Cup has the United States come back from two matches down to win a tie. That was in 1934.

But we always say in Davis Cup that anything can happen. Certainly the United States is hoping that statement is true over the next two days. The chances of them going out Saturday in the doubles and winning is going to be a bigger feat than trying to win one of the singles matches Friday.

They are going up against one of the most underrated doubles teams in the world today in Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra. There's still some speculation as to who is actually going to play doubles for the United States. Is it Fish and Martin, or Blake and Fish, who played in Oklahoma City together, or Blake and Martin, who played so well and won in Cincinnati this summer? I'm sure captain Patrick McEnroe is going to assess everything that happened Friday and talk to his three players and put the best team out on the court tomorrow.

For both Blake and Roddick, these matches are going to be an experience that they will never forget and one that they will learn from tremendously. They both came into Davis Cup very confident because they had never lost a match in Davis Cup before, but neither had ever played a live match overseas. They experienced something Friday that they have never experienced before.

If this match is still undecided on Sunday, you're going to see both of them handle the situation a little bit better -- especially Blake. Roddick got off to a very good start, he just got outplayed after the first set. Blake got off to a poor start and was playing catchup the entire match against Grosjean, who was playing very well. So, if the tie is still alive Sunday, both of these players should perform and react better in the same situation.

That's what each day and each year brings, different situations that you must learn from. For these guys to improve and reach their full potential, they have to not walk away from Friday with their heads down, but walk away learning something about themselves and about what it takes to be a great Davis Cup player.