Dmitry Tursunov, the Russian who honed his tennis skills in California and talks like an American, is not known for his mental fortitude. At Wimbledon this year, a chair umpire accused Tursunov of hitting a ball at him (Tursunov was docked a point in the final game of a loss and later fined). The 23-year-old hits with as much force as anyone on tour, but he rarely seems to know when to let up. Even this season, his best so far, he has too often lacked patience and made more than his share of poor decisions.

These attributes make Tursunov a bad fit for clay courts — which is why Andy Roddick should have felt awfully good yesterday when Tursunov, and not Nikolay Davydenko, who suffered spells of dizziness at a recent tournament, took the court in a crucial Davis Cup semifinal match. Tursunov had a 4-0 record in Davis Cup singles matches before yesterday, but two were played after the outcome of the tie had been decided.

If the United States is going to win another Davis Cup title (its last was in 1995), Roddick has to win a match like this one, no matter how uncomfortable he is on clay. Yesterday should have been Roddick’s day. Instead, he lost perhaps the most excruciating match of his career to a tense opponent who coughed up a two-set lead, 6–3, 6–4, 5–7, 3–6, 17–15. The total number of games (72) tied a mark set in 2001 for most games played since Davis Cup began using tiebreakers in 1989.

Roddick served for the match at 6–5. He didn’t face a break point in the second or third set, and all the pressure was on Tursunov. If Roddick had won, Marat Safin and James Blake would have played a decisive match — and while Safin would have been favored, the thought of blowing a 2–0 lead in this tie certainly would have weighed heavily on the inconsistent Safin’s shoulders. The man with the best serve in tennis needed to hold one more game, and then anything was possible.

Instead, Tursunov, who botched two easy forehands the previous game, returned Roddick’s first serve cross court for a winner. He earned two break points, at 15–40, after Roddick netted a routine forehand. Roddick pulled another easy forehand wide to lose the game. The two played for another hour plus — 4 hours and 48 minutes in all — until Tursunov, on his fourth match point, sent Russia into the final. The tie ended at 3–2 in favor of Russia, after Blake defeated Safin in a meaningless match, 7–5, 7–6(4).

Before yesterday, Russia had never beaten the United States in the Davis Cup. In the countries’ first meeting, in the 1995 final, Pete Sampras figured in all three points (two in singles and one in doubles) as the Americans won 3–2 on clay. The United States won 3–2 in the first round in 1998, on hard courts.

This loss undoubtedly will produce all sorts of handwringing and bellyaching about the state of American tennis, especially after weak performances by Americans in three of four grand slams this year.

But depth had nothing to do with this loss. The 1995 team, which included Sampras, Jim Courier, and Andre Agassi, was, of course, a more talented group, but it still needed Sampras to win all three matches. This year’s squad was, on paper, the best team in the field, if only because twins Bob and Mike Bryan are a sure thing (they pummeled Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny on Saturday).

I thought that on the clay, the U.S. team would steal this match. Davydenko is Russia’s best clay court player, and his absence forced Russia’s captain, Shamil Tarpishchev, to make some unusual choices. It also forced him to rely on Safin, whose game is by turns beautiful and abysmal. Considering how Tursunov performed in doubles on Saturday (he served poorly and volleyed as if he had not played the net in five years), his selection to play singles yesterday was a surprise.

Tursunov did not play too well against Roddick.He served 48% for the match, a terrible percentage, especially on clay, where aces are more difficult to come by (Roddick served 70%). After a stellar run to the U.S. Open final and a decent performance there against Roger Federer, Roddick arrived in Russia with more confidence than he has had in three years. Safin outplayed him on Friday, but the Tursunov match was Roddick’s to win, clay or no clay. He just didn’t deliver.

In December, Russia will play at home in the final against Argentina, which backed up a lot of trash talking by drubbing Australia, 5–0.The Argentines have never won the Davis Cup; Russia won its first and only title in 2002, against France. Tarpishchev said the Russians will not choose clay for the final.