It is impossible to go to a Davis Cup event and not notice them, banging on bongos and cowbells between points. They’re the NetHeads and one look at them will let you know who they’re rooting for. Decked in red, white and blue with matching tennis nets wrapped around their heads, the group chants for the US team, replacing the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” with cries of “Andy” during Roddick’s match against Michael Llodra.
This has been going on since Andy Roddick’s first Davis Cup, said Lucy Stuckey, a NetHead, from Richmond, Va.
“Jay Lashingler started this because his is a friend of John Roddick. They played on their college’s tennis team together. So the first time Andy played in a Davis Cup match, they decided to get dressed up and support him. And it just kind of grew from there,” she said.
And there aren’t only Americans among the ranks of the NetHeads.
“When we were in Vienna [for the Davis Cup's first round] there were people from Belgium, Russia, England and they all had their USA T-shirts on and nets on,” Stuckey said. “Almost everybody that’s here is from the US but whenever there’s a European match usually the Europeans outnumber the people from the United States.”
The group turned out to cheer Roddick and James Blake to victory in their singles’ matches yesterday, and are expected to return for Mike and Bob Bryan’s doubles match today.
Lucy Stuckey (right) and fellow NetHeads cheer on the USA team.
