Fans of the U.S. Davis Cup team could not have asked for a better weekend in Winston-Salem, N.C. James Blake, who hadn’t won two matches in a row since February, pasted Tommy Robredo on Friday and toyed with Feliciano Lopez in an exhibition match yesterday. Andy Roddick, returning from a hamstring injury, survived a slow start and easily defeated Fernando Verdasco, a player who has troubled him in the past. Twins Bob and Mike Bryan churned out another win, their 11th against one loss.

The moment of the weekend, however, occurred in Sweden, where a pair of old fogies – 32-year-old Thomas Johansson and 35-year-old Jonas Bjorkman – and the mediocre 22-year-old Robin Soderling dismantled an immensely talented Argentine team on a fast indoor court. Johansson opened the tie with a victory over David Nalbandian, and then Soderling put Argentina on the brink by defeating 18-year-old Juan Martin Del Potro. Bjorkman and Johansson secured the victory with a doubles win over Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas.

The surface in Sweden – an indoor, synthetic court with low bounces – undoubtedly helped the Swedes, but Argentina, last year’s finalist, can make no excuse for this loss.

Let’s start with Nalbandian. He can play on any surface and has reached the semifinals or better at each major (his one final came at Wimbledon). A 25-year-old with his talent should not lose to Johansson, an aging former top 10 player who is trying to regain his form after missing four months with a detached retina (he was hit by a ball), at least not at an event of this importance. Nalbandian seems out of shape and indifferent about his future, but that’s been true in the past. It’s unclear what’s troubling him, but he may fall out of the top 20 this year if his underwhelming performances continue.

Then there is Canas, who has played sparkling tennis since returning from a drug suspension, including consecutive victories over Roger Federer. Yet captain Alberto Mancini scratched Canas from the second singles match on Friday, instead turning to Del Potro, a powerful rookie who had played one previous Davis Cup match and is a terrible mover. The Argentines said Canas was tired from two long weeks at Indian Wells and Miami and was nursing a sore thigh and that he didn’t have enough time to adjust to the fast surface in Sweden.

What nonsense. Of course he was tired and sore, but he had a week to get over it (also, his thigh hurt in Miami, where he reached the final). As for the surface adjustment reason – it’s bogus. A player might need months or years to master a surface, but when all one needs is to become acquainted with it, two days are as good as four or five. It’s not as if they were playing underwater. Either Mancini babied Canas, saw something in practice that caused him to lose confidence in his best player, or Canas said he couldn’t play. One thing is for certain, Canas didn’t tell Mancini, “I’m playing great, so you’d better throw me out there.”

Miraculously, he was healthy enough for doubles, but all was lost at that point. No combination of Argentine players was going to beat a doubles team that included Bjorkman, one of the very best doubles players in the sport’s history (that they won a set was an accomplishment). Argentina needed to win a singles match on Friday and hope for a reverse sweep on Sunday. Instead, this team did what every Argentine team has done since the country played its first Davis Cup in 1921: lose.

Sweden’s upset makes the U.S. the slight favorite to win the Davis Cup this year (it hasn’t won since 1995). If Argentina had won, the U.S. would have traveled there to play on clay in September’s semifinal – an almost certain loss considering Argentina’s depth of claycourt players (another former star, 2005 French Open finalist Mariano Puerta, returns from a drug suspension in June and would have been eligible for that tie, too). In Sweden, the match will be indoors and the Swedes may well choose clay, but they won’t be any more comfortable on it than the Americans. The only thing Sweden brings to this match that other teams do not is a doubles team that can challenge the Bryan brothers. If the Bryans win, the Swedes don’t have much chance.

The final would pit the U.S. against either Russia, which defeated France 3-2 this weekend, or Germany, which took a 3-0 lead over Belgium before losing two meaningless rubbers. Russia hasn’t lost at home since Pete Sampras single-handedly beat them in the 1995 final and likely will advance. Russia defeated the U.S. 3-2 in last year’s semifinal on clay; this time, the U.S. would host, and choose the surface.

While the Argentine team continues to falter despite immense talent, the Russians, led by Shamil Tarpischev, a skipper who loves to take risks, seem to win no matter how they arrange their team. This weekend, they used four different men in four singles matches.

When Nikolay Davydenko lost on Friday, Tarpischev turned to Mikhail Youzhny, who clinched Russia’s first Cup in 2002, and the uneven Youzhny responded with a five-set win over Richard Gasquet (he won the first two sets, dropped the next two, and prevailed 8-6 in the fifth). On Saturday he replaced Marat Safin with Davydenko, fielding the curious doubles team of Davydenko and Igor Andreev. The duo hadn’t collaborated for nearly a year, but they won in five sets by playing from the baseline. Safin returned yesterday after Andreev lost to Sebastian Grosjean (he had replaced Gasquet), and defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets in the decisive rubber (he clinched last year’s title, too).

Russia is the most versatile team in tennis, and the U.S. has the best chemistry and the most committed players. It’s a superb final waiting to happen. Thank you, Sweden.

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Tatiana Golovin, 19, won the first WTA Tour title of her career yesterday, 6-2, 6-1 over Nadia Petrova at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Fla. The Russia-born Frenchwoman defeated Venus Williams earlier in the week, as well as Ana Ivanovic. Petrova won the clay event last year.

tperrotta@nysun.com