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Berdychis on the roll! After defeating Federer at the US Open, he made his team to get to the 2012 Davis Cup final.
The Starting Point
The Czech Republic was very well positioned as they were leading 2-1 and Juan Martin Del Potro was unable to play the reverse single. So, only a miracle could have saved Argentina from the elimination as Berloq had to play Berdych. The Argentine is a good claycourt player but he is not at the same level as Tomas.
Berdych – Berloq6-3 6-3 6-4
As forecasted, that was a straight sets win. The noisy crowd and the presence of all sort of VIPs (Maradona was one of the most agitated) didn’t spare Berloq from defeat. The match eventually lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes.
From Berdych
“I know that Carlos is a guy who wants to fight until the last point, and he was trying to do that,” Berdych said. “But actually I still had a belief in myself, that I am the one who is a bit better, and feeling probably a bit better.”
Talking about the next match against Spain, Berdych said“This is going to be the highlight of my career up until now. It is going to be very difficult playing against Spain, the champion, but at least we are lucky to be playing at home.”
After that Monaco played Minar to win 6-3 7-6 (3) in a sort of an exhibition match
So it is going to be Spain – Czech Repubblic with Spain as the super favorite…. unless Berdych wins all his 3 matches.
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The Nadal-less Spain is still the team to beat with players such as Ferrer, Almagro, Granollers and both Lopez (even if Feliciano did not play).
Spain was leading 2-1
This time it was Team USA to be “matado”. Spain got an early 2-0 lead in day one thanks to Ferrer’s win over Querrey and Almagro’s over Isner. Then the Bryans defeated Granollers and Lopez in doublesto bring it to a 2-1 scoreline.
Ferrer – Isner6-7(3) 6-3 6-4 6-2
It was time for David to wrap everything up. Isner is a tough client also on clay as he has more time to adjust his (a bit complicated) movements. The American giant won the first set the “Isner-way”, alias at the tiebreak. Then it was time for David the gladiator to take everything back and win the following 3 sets.
From David
“I’m very happy and this is a dream for me,” said Ferrer. “Another Davis Cup final. We were here in Gijon at home, I won the last match and I won overJohn Isnerwho is a very, very good player.”
From John
“It is disappointing; the Spanish team in my opinion is just too good. They won the important points and it is a bit discouraging for me. I wanted to contribute in the ways that I did in the first two ties and I wasn’t able to do it. That is a credit to Almagro and Ferrer, they were both better than me.”
From Jim Courier
The US captain commented.“I think it was a great battle between two of the best teams in the world,” said Courier. “Spain is the high watermark in Davis Cup in the last 15 years and we knew it was going to be a very tricky tie for us and we were close. All of us who live in tennis know that there are always a few points that make big differences and the Spaniards found a way to win some key points in the three matches that they won.”
Almagro and Querrey did not play the last match, so the official result was Spain – USA 3-1
Vamos Espana!
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The Swiss Maestro saves Switzerland. His team was leading 2-1 after both Roger and Stanislas won their singles in the first day to then lose the doubles. To tell the truth and as per Roger’s comment, the most important match was Wawrinka’s one against Haase when Stanislas’ victory gave a decisive edge to his team.
The Match6-1, 6-4, 6-4
Easy stuff for the world no.1 as he won the opener with a comfortable 6-1 to then cruise in the next 2 sets in style. The match ended in 2 hours and 38 minutes, Actually, Roger is just “too much” for these kind of happenings against “not top players”.
From Roger
“The first set actually on the score looks the easiest but could have been one of the tougher ones”, Federer said. “The result doesn’t always show how tough it was. But I was in control most of the time.”
From Haase
There was a funny comment from Haase about playing Federer
“Incredibly difficult. It’s the spin and speed he puts on the ball that stand out. I can hit a ball ten centimetres from his baseline and he gets it back deep into my court, with no trouble at all. When he hits the ball ten centimetres from my baseline, it’s a totally different shot and I’m barely able to keep the ball in play.It’s a joy to watch, really. Unless it’s you on the court.”
In the following “useless” match Chiudinelli lost 6-2 7-6 (4) to De Bakker.
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From bad to worse.
The was already a very big embarrassment because of the “great” refusal byBopanna and Bhupathi to partner with Leander Paes at the 2012 Olympic Games (see the all story here).
The AITA took the very controversial decision to ban both players till 2014.
What Happened?
Trying to summarise, bothBopanna and Bhupathi refused to play the Olympic Games with Leander because of personal reasons and the fact that they have decided to partner together also in preparation of the Olympics.
Eventually Paes had to partner withVishnu Vardhan (a youngster) and he couldn’t bring any medal to his country (as Bopanna and Bhupathi).
The Federation got a bit upset with that and apparently they didn’t want to let it go.
The Statement
So, the AITA Secretary Bharat Oza announced on Saturday“It is … decided not to consider Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna for selection to play for India until June 30, 2014,”
The Reaction
Bhupathi’s reaction on Twitter was pretty clear. “The cranky old grand fathers on the executive committee, who have never played tennis waiting for a reaction? There is one coming.stay tuned!”
We were hoping for a friendly ending… it wasn’t the case
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Super, great and magnificent effort from Nole. His 5 set defeat in the US Open final didn’t stop the Serb to raise a whopping 1.400.000 at his Foundation Dinner Charity held at Capitale in New York the 12th of September.
Many VIPs attended the foundation. Among them McEnroe, Sarah Ferguson, the model Karklie Kloss
“What we want to do with our Foundation is to help and raise the awareness in Serbia of the pre-school education, and try to enable kids to have access to sport activities, facilities, to better nutrition, better education. This is the first event, so we are all very excited for it,”Novak said.“In partnership with UNICEF, we’re trying to achieve a lot, and to bring happiness and joy to our kids.”
Good stuff.. we like when champions such as Nole, Roger and Rafa use their image to help people around the world.
Some more information about the Foundation
Mission Statement
“Enable children from disadvantaged communities to grow up, play and develop in stimulative, creative and safe settings, whilst learning to respect others and care for their environment”
What they do
“Through strong partnerships with citizens associations and community-based organizations in Serbia, we plan to create settings in which children living in disadvantaged communities have the opportunity to engage in creative play and learn to develop values and skills that will give them a head start in life, help them reach their full potential, hoping that in the future – they themselves can bring positive changes to communities.”
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Ahi ahi… almost game over for Argentina. There was a bit of a turn of events.
What happened? The Czech team played a bit of a (100% regular) trick as they did not makeIvo Minar and Lukas Rosol play the doubles (they were the nominated ones). Instead the much stronger duo, Stepanek and Berdych, did take on Berloq and Schwank.
The Match
Even if it was a 3 set scoreline, the match wasn’t as easy as there were quite long a fierce rallies taking place all over the match (especially in the 1st set). To give an example, the third game of he 1st set lasted a whopping 20 minutes. Finally it was the Czech duo to win 6-3 6-4 6-3.
“The scoreline says it was comfortable but as you can see the first set was like an hour,” Stepanek said. “The guys came pumped up to the match, it was Carlos’s premier Davis Cup and in front of such a crowd, you come almost over motivated, but we concentrated on our half of the court. We knew what we have between each other in Davis Cup doubles and I think we proved it from the beginning to the last point.”
Del Potro won’t play
Losing the doubles was a very bad news for the Argentinian and losing Del Potro was truly horrible. Yes, Delpo has been battling for sometimes with his left wrist to decide to play against the advice of the doctorand stoically defeat Stepanek in his first match. But that was already too much, so he had to pull out from the next match.
Next Matches
Berloq will play Berdych and Monaco will take on Stepanek. Czech Republic becomes now the super favorite, unless clay specialist Berloq does something incredible against Berdych. That is not very plausible.
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Spain is still in control, but the flying brothers did put some doubts in their minds.
The Drama
The match was a bit of a drama as Granollers suffered from an calf injury picked up in the second set. Spain captainAlex Corretja asked him to retire in order to avoid to further complicate the injury, but the Spaniard stoically decided to keep on playing. Eventually his tennis even picked up, but the Bryans were just too solid.
From Lopez
It’s a shame because we felt really good today,” Lopez said “It happened to me in the U.S. one week ago, it’s tough.”
From Bob
“At times we thought he was going to quit but he kept getting the balls and hitting the serves,” Bob Bryan said “That’s probably one of the longest Davis Cup matches we’ve ever played.”. The match lasted 3 hours and 38 minutes.
From Mike
“It’s never easy to play in these conditions as the crowd is loud,” Mike Bryan added. “Granollers might have hurt his calf there and we backed off the gas there a little bit. You always want to play aggressive in those situations but I’m proud of the way we picked it up at the end and played some good tennis.”
From Courier
The US Captain was quite happy about their performance to still have some hopes.
“Tomorrow, obviously, is a little bit different with one versus one and two versus two,” Courier said. “Ferrer is such a warrior and a great competitor and John’s going to have to play better than he did yesterday to stand a chance. He’s a little bit more physically taxed than David is for sure.Sam I think will have a chance. If it gets to a fifth match a lot of the pressure actually shifts in the other direction. Momentum is important and it shifts quickly in Davis Cup.”
The next Matches
Ferrer will play Isner and Almagro will take on Querrey. Spain is still the favorite, but if Isner upsets Ferrer… well then it is going to be interesting.
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Bad news for the Swiss team as Roger and Stanislas unexpectedlylost in 4 sets to the Netherlands.
Now Switzerland leads 2-1 on the Netherlands as Federer and Wawrinka won their matches the previous day.
This match gave a little bit of a boost to the Dutch team“We never panicked even when Switzerland won the third set. We stayed concentrated throughout the match,” said Haase.
Rojer commented : “It’s fantastic. To beat Federer, even in doubles, will remain an extraordinary experience.”
The next matches will be:
Federer – Haase
Wawrinka – De Bakker
“It won’t be an easy job but I will give it everything against Roger,” said Haase“It’s cold, the clay is heavy. I know he won’t like that.”
Switzterland remains the clear favorite.
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This was Delpo time! Juan Martin decided to take the controversial decision to play even if he wassuffering from a wrist injury.
Del Potro – Stepanek6-4, 6-4, 6-2
The result was comfortable, the pain wasn’t. Juan Martin managed to wrap up the match in 2 hours and 41 minutes to bring the 1st point to his team. The Tower of Tamil then broke down in tears while giving his speech after the victory.
“To play here in my country with this fantastic crowd is amazing for me. I really enjoyed it,” said del Potro. “I played really well. I took all my opportunities to break his serve.”
Berdych – Monaco6-1, 4-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4
Great stuff from Tomas that recovered from a 1-2 set down deficit to then rally from 1-4 games down in the fifth. This feat has been achieved “against a hostile crowd” with the presence of super VIPs such as Diego Maradona and Gabriela Sabatini. Finally Tomas won this battle in just over 4 hours.
“I had pretty much nothing to do but to believe in myself and that I’m a player in the certain level, and I’m able to turn the matches like this even with a crowd like that,” Berdych said. “Everything that was going for him, I was able to get energy from that and that was the result.”
“Tomorrow is a new day,” said Monaco. “I’m going to recover a little bit, practice, try to get some feeling on court again, then I think I have to eat well, recover and just be ready to play and have new revenge I guess on Sunday. That’s the good part of Davis Cup.”
Next Match
Berloq and Shwank will take on Minar and Rosol in doubles.
Given the fact that Argentina is playing at home and that Berloq and Shwank should win, the home team has an edge. In fact, Delpo may not be the favourite with Berdych because of his injury, but Monaco is definately expected to defeat Stepanek.
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Team America was very very happy to know that the (absolute) King of Clay would not be able to play the semifinals, but they had to overcome something else: Spain has a bloody good team!
Ferrer – Querrey4-6 6-2 6-2 6-4
In the first match Ferrer had to defeat a sticky Querrey in just over 3 hours.
“I think the first set, he was playing more aggressive than me. I broke him the first game but he played good in the final of the first set,” said Ferrer. “In the second set, I broke the first game and I played more consistent and solid… I could have lost the fourth set. He had a lot of chances. I was very focussed on every break point down. Finally I broke him in the last game.”
Talking about his condition“I’m a bit tired, but that’s normal. It’s almost the end of the year and it’s impossible to play perfect tennis,” addedFerrer
David has now a remarkable 20-4 record when playing for Spain.
Almagro – Isner 6-4 4-6 6-4 3-6 7-5
This was a great epic match that lasted 4 hours and 16 minutes. This battletested the players’ fitness till the last point.
“It was very tough,” Almagro said. “I think he served really good. I didn’t feel very comfortable at the court when he was serving. But we are happy because it’s Friday and we’re 2-0 up.”
Isner admitted to be a bit tired by the end of the match“I think I missed three volleys in that last game and I should’ve made all of them. So, maybe, fatigue made those routine shots a little harder” said Isner “That was really disappointing because I did such a good job the whole fourth and fifth set of just hanging in there and I just kind of gave it away at the end.”
Next Match
It is going to be the doubles when Grannolers and Marc Lopez will take on the flying Bryans.
Time for Spain to wrap it up, but we are sure that the Bryans do not agree with that!
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