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 make Ivo 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 doctor and 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.
