The last time Bob and Mike Bryan lost a Davis Cup doubles match, the American team was upset by Croatia, which went on to win the title in 2005. The Bryans lost again this weekend to the talented French duo of Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement, but this time there was no sense of impending doom. From the moment Andy Roddick stepped on the court yesterday in Winston-Salem, N.C., this contest with France was over. Roddick suffocated Paul-Henri Mathieu from the opening game. He didn’t face a break point the entire match and lost only 13 points on his serve (and only five on his first serve) in a 6–2, 6–3, 6–2 victory. Roddick has yet to lose a match — he’s a perfect 10–0 — when he has a chance to clinch a win for his team. The Americans will next travel to Spain, after the U.S. Open, for the most challenging match since Patrick McEnroe assembled the team of Roddick, James Blake, and the Bryan twins. The last time the Americans played Spain on the road, in 2004, the setting was Madrid for the Davis Cup final. Rafael Nadal was an 18-year-old and he helped Spain win the title with a four-set victory against Roddick. This time around, Nadal might play a role in all three points for Spain if need be.

But that’s months from now, so at the moment American fans can be thankful for the continued commitment and loyalty of this squad and, it must be said, the less-than-inspiring showing by France’s best player, Richard Gasquet. Gasquet’s country faced the defending champion on the road on a fast indoor court and was without its best fast-court player, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 22-year-old who reached the final of the Australian Open earlier this year. Tsonga spent the weeks leading up to this contest talking trash, until he discovered that he had torn a meniscus in his right knee. How did Gasquet respond? He refused to play singles on Friday because of blisters and supposed troubles with his own knees. He wouldn’t play against Roddick yesterday, either, instead leaving Mathieu — who squandered two match points against Blake on Friday in a heart-wrenching five-set loss — to fend for himself against Roddick. Gasquet eventually made an appearance: He played Blake in Sunday’s meaningless second singles match (the Americans were ahead 3–1 at that point). Blake won, 6–7(4), 6–4, 6–4.

For Gasquet, the performance — or lack of performance — marked a new low, which is saying something when one considers that the Frenchman defaulted his second-round match at last year’s U.S. Open because of a cold. The last time Gasquet and Roddick met, at Wimbledon last year, Gasquet stunned the American by recovering from a two-set deficit. Roddick didn’t hide his desire to return the favor. “I owe Gasquet one from last year, and I look forward to that opportunity,” he said. Gasquet, obviously, did not. After Llodra and Clement defeated the Bryan brothers on Saturday, France’s captain, Guy Forget, made it clear that he didn’t think much of Gasquet’s excuses.

“I feel it should be an honor to play for your country,” Forget said. “Richard felt like he couldn’t play at a decent level [on Friday]. Now the question is how he really feels. But I’m not begging him. If he doesn’t want to play he won’t go out.”

I don’t envy Forget — what respected former top pro should be made to beg from a millionaire? — but I would have loved to see him tell Gasquet to take the next plane home if he wasn’t ready to play. Why keep the guy around when the rest of the team is fighting like mad against the most dogged team in the field and a rowdy crowd? Llodra and Clement played doubles as finely as it can be played on Saturday (the Bryans didn’t play badly, they simply couldn’t match Llodra’s serving and backhand volley wizardry or Clement’s stinging service returns). Mathieu did well to push Blake, a superior player who has had more success in the Davis Cup, to the brink, but he tightened up when he had Blake out of position on the first of his two match points. In 2002, Mathieu suffered one of the worst Davis Cup losses when he blew a two-set lead over Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in the decisive fifth match in the final — in front of his home fans, no less. A man who has lost two matches of this kind doesn’t stand a chance against Roddick on an indoor fast court, but all credit to him for trying when Gasquet would not.

Gasquet might have learned another lesson about effort if he watched Argentina’s contest with Sweden this weekend. David Nalbandian, known for his stamina and his inability to win important matches at major tournaments, again proved himself to be a formidable Davis Cup player. The top Argentine won a four-set singles match on Friday (time: three hours), a three-set doubles match, with Guillermo Canas, over the strong team of Jonas Bjorkman and Robert Lindstedt (two hours and 15 minutes), and a five-set, clinching singles match over Robin Soderling, 6–4, 1–6, 4–6, 6–4, 9–7 (four hours) despite a leg that was far less than 100%. Nalbandian trailed the entire match (he was down a break of serve in the fourth and fifth sets) and wept when it was over.

Argentina, which has never won the Davis Cup, will host Russia in the semifinals and now has its best chance yet to win the title. If it reaches the final, it will play host to Spain or the Americans, perhaps on a hard court against Spain and certainly on clay against America. The defending champion American squad is in the opposite position: If they are to defend their title, they’ll have to do it on the road the rest of the way. No team has won back-to-back Davis Cup titles since Sweden in 1997 and 1998. For the Americans to match that feat, they’ll have to win two straight contests on clay against superior clay court players. It’s possible, but unlikely. Whatever the outcome, though, no one will question their effort.

Mr. Perrotta is a senior editor at Tennis magazine. He can be reached at tperrotta@tennismagazine.com.