Today’s Men’s News (09/15) – Davis Cup

Written by: Staff on 15th September 2012

Today's Men's News (09/15) - Davis Cup

epa03281384 Ernests Gulbis of Latvia returns to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 25 June 2012. EPA/GERRY PENNY |

Davis Cup

The good news for Spain was, Marc Lopez was healthy enough to play. The bad news was, well, he and Marcel Granollers were up against the Bryans. That would have been pretty bad news even had Lopez been at his best; as it turned out, the Bryans won 6-3 3-6 7-5 7-5. That still leaves the Americans needing two singles points on clay, though.

We already knew that the tie between the Czechs and the Argentines would last another day, but given the state of Juan Martin del Potro’s wrist, the situation definitely favored the Czechs. Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek put them up 2-1 by beating Carlos Berlocq and Eduardo Schwank 6-3 6-4 6-3. Which means that a tired but healthy Berdych need only beat win his match to clinch for the Czechs. And he won’t even have to face del Potro, who has pulled out due to his bad wrist. He has been told to rest his arm for at least ten days. So Carlos Berlocq will play the reverse singles. And even if Berlocq prevails against Berdych, the Czechs have at least a chance for another point in the Stepanek versus Juan Monaco match.

The Playoffs

Sweden can’t really have hoped to win their tie with Belgium. After all, they have no singles players. But a point would have been nice — and, with Johan Brunstrom, they had probably the strongest doubles player of the tie. But he didn’t have any support; he played with Michael Ryderstedt. And so Belgium became the first team to clinch a tie; Ruben Bemelmans and Olivier Rochus beat Brunstrom and Ryderstedt 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-2 to secure a 3-0 lead for the Belgians.

A doubles specialist was able to keep the tie between Switzerland and the Dutch alive. Jean-Julien Rojer teamed with Robin Haase to beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4 6-2 5-7 6-3. Of course, Haase still needs to beat Federer in singles — and even if he managed that, then Thiemo de Bakker or Igor Sijsling will have to beat Stanislas Wawrinka. The Dutch may be alive, but they didn’t improve their long-term survival chances much.

Kazakhstan now appears to be in the driver’s seat against Uzbekistan. Andrei Golubev and Yuri Schukin beat Denis Istomin and Farrukh Dustov 7-6 6-3 6-4. And although Istomin is likely to win the first reverse singles, that still means that Dustov has to win the second….

Israel is now up 2-1 on Japan after Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram beat Tatsuma Ito and Yuichi Sugita 5-7 6-3 6-3 6-1. We’d still like the Japanese chances if Kei Nishikori could play — but, as of now, he still isn’t listed….

The doubles may well prove the difference between Germany and Australia; Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione are weaker doubles players than Germany’s Philipp Petzschner, but Petzschner had to play with Benjamin Becker, and they hadn’t had much time together. Hewitt and Guccione put Australia up 2-1 with a 6-3 6-2 2-6 7-6 win. Germany, given the clay surface, probably has the advantage in the first reverse singles match; Florian Mayer will face Bernard Tomic. But then Hewitt faces struggling Cedrik-Marcel Stebe. That has to be just the way Hewitt wanted it….

The suspended second singles between Italy and Chile ended just as expected, if much later than expected: Fabio Fognini beat Paul Capdeville 2-6 6-3 6-7 6-1 6-2. But Capdeville had surprisingly quick revenge; he and Jose Aguilar beat Italy’s Bracciali/Seppi 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-2. The edge is still clearly with Italy, however.

Canada got a bit of a shock when Daniel Nestor failed to put them through. He and Vasek Pospisil suffered a stunning 6-4 7-6 7-6 loss to Raven Klaasen and Izak van der Merwe. To be sure, Canada is still up 2-1, with Milos Raonic available for reverse singles, so they still ought to win. But this means that they will at least have to take Sunday seriously.

There was no such surprise for Brazil. They became the second nation to clinch a win; Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares beat Russia’s Alex Bogomolov and Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-5 6-2 7-6.