The Davis Cup has always interesting stories to tell.
This time we witnessed a couple of incredible epic matches (Nalbadian-Cilic and Tipsarevic – Stepanek) that lasted more than 5 hours and Croatia taking its chances with Argentina.
Let’s see what happened
FRANCE-USA 1-1
This was the most interesting tie. Even if Courier says that USA is the underdog (but nobody believes it), the Americans proved to have the upper hand. Harrison was defeated by Tsonga 7-5 6-2 2-6 6-2 and Isner had an easy one with Simon 6-3 6-2 7-5 (highlights in the main video)
“I took the court very confident,” Isner said. “To me no matter who I was going to play today, I was going to feel confident no matter what. So that was the case today. I went out there and I played very well, simple as that. I was very happy with how I played and I am happy that I was able to help the team out.”
Jim Courier had very nice words for Harrison. “I think he is an unpolished diamond,” he said. “There is a lot to work on to get better and he already is as good as he is. It is exciting for us, those of us who care about American tennis to see someone like Ryan who is willing to put the effort in. (He) is going get better and better and we are going to potentially need him on Sunday. So he is going to have to get better soon.”
The Bryans are the favorite in the doubles against Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra. If USA gets to a 2-1 lead they have to win one of the following matches Simon-Harrison and Tsonga-Isner (both are evenly matched)
SPAIN – AUSTRIA 2-0
As predicted, the Spanish Armada is trashing Austria.
It took less than 2 hours for a very inspired Almagro to breeze past Melzer (6-2 6-2 6-4) and 1h and 25minutes for Ferrer to trash Haider-Maurer 6-1 6-3 6-1.
“I’m very happy with my match today, I think I played one of my best matches in Davis Cup,” commented Almagro. “The score was easy but the match wasn’t. I had to fight for every point and I think I was more focussed than him. I beat a great player in a great competition like Davis Cup so I’m very happy.”
“I won relatively easily and am happy with my game today,” said Ferrer. “Maybe the opponent played a little bit bad and made many mistakes but I played very solid and consistent.”
CZECH REP – SERBIA 1-1
There was a crazy and very nervous match between Tipsarevic and Stepanek. The Serb eventually won it 5-7 6-4 6-4 4-6 9-7 fending off 3 match points on his serve. The match lasted 5h and 9minutes and unfortunately it finished with a harsh altercation between the 2 opponents at the end of the match. The things may have gone further if Tipsarevic’s teammates would have not stopped him 3 times. With the disbelieve of everybody, in the aftermatch interview the Serb mantained that it was “the worst performance of my Davis Cup career” (maybe Janko did not have the chance to cool down…)
The other match was a very easy 6-2 6-1 6-2 of Berdych over Troiki. Czech Rep is the favourite.
ARGENTINA – CROATIA 1-1
Croatia is the clear underdog, but the Europeans managed to stick to the Latin Americans in the first day.
Cilic won an epic match with Nalbadian (a difficult guy to play with in Davis Cup rubbers) 5-7 6-4 4-6 7-6 (2) 6-3 while Del Potro had an easy one with bomm boom Karlovic 6-2 7-6 (7) 6-1. The big question mark here is Delpo’s fitness. The Argentine accused a sort of sickness in the morning and during the warm up.
“First of all, I feel really glad for the victory, I played really well and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was really hard for me, but I always want to play here, even if I’m not in best shape. I don’t want to lose any chance of playing in Buenos Aires in front of my own crowd, although it’s true that I don’t know if would have played if David had won his match,” said del Potro.
INTERVIEWS
