Men Tennis Update – Davis Cup Monday, February 4, 2013

Written by: Staff on 3rd February 2013

Men Tennis Update - Davis Cup Monday, February 4, 2013

epa03566456 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland returns the ball to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic during the third single match of the Davis Cup World Group First Round tie between Switzerland and the Czech Republic in Geneva, Switzerland, 03 February 2013. EPA/MARTIAL TREZZINI |

Davis Cup

Astoundingly, after their seven hour marathon the day before, Tomas Berdych and Stanislas Wawrinka both took the court in the Czech/Swiss tie. Astoundingly, they played a close match, a four set thriller. Un-astoundingly, Berdych won. 6-3 6-4 3-6 7-6, and the Czech Republic is back in the quarterfinal. And they’ll presumably have Radek Stepanek back for that.

In the final match, Henri Laaksonen beat substitute Jiri Vesely 0-6 6-3 6-1.

If that tie was exciting, the tie between France and Israel was just plain boring — and the first to be completed. The French had already clinched. In the first reverse singles, both sides substituted, with Michael Llodra beating Noam Okun 6-3 7-6. Then Richard Gasquet completed the sweep by beating Amir Weintraub 6-4 6-3.

Jurgen Melzer’s meltdown for Austria proved their doom. He lost 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2 to Kazakhstan’s Andrei Golubev, letting Kazakhstan clinch 3-1. They didn’t bother with the fifth match.

Belgium managed to eaen consolation points against Serbia, but even those came hard. The Serbs, with the tie already clinched, substituted Boris Pashanski in the fourth match. David Goffin beat him to earn Belgium’s first point, but the score was a surprisingly close 6-4 2-6 6-2. The Serbs then had doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic play the fifth match. Substitute Steve Darcis won that match 6-2 6-4, but the Serbs won the matches that counted….

Germany couldn’t even do much about winning consolation points. Juan Monaco made it 4-0 for Argentina by beating Tobias Kamke 6-4 7-6. Germany then sent in doubles specialist Christopher Kas to play the final match. Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq beat him 6-2 6-4, and Argentina had the second sweep of the weekend.

The tie between Italy and Croatia was the first to go down to the wire. Sunday opened with Marin Cilic beating Andreas Seppi 6-3 6-3 7-5. That put all the weight on the #2 players, Fabio Fognini and Ivan Dodig. And on the clay surface. Dodig might have been more of a threat on an indoor hardcourt, but on dirt, Fognini clearly had he advantage. He beat Dodig 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 to give Italy a 3-2 victory.

The good news is, John Isner is healthy enough to play a five set match. The bad news is, he is perhaps too rusty for a five set match. Brazil’s #1 Thomaz Bellucci edged him 2-6 6-4 6-7 6-4 6-3 to level the tie. Suddenly the doubles loss by the Bryans was looking very big indeed.

It looked even bigger when the Americans’ last hope, Sam Querrey, went down a set to Thiago Alves. He managed to come back for two sets after that — and then was broken as he served for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set. But he bounced back in the tiebreak to win 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6.

It was still quite a scare. And this was on American soil, too. What happens on another surface?

While that was going on, Canada was cruising to victory. Already up 2-1, Milos Raonic clinched by beating emergency Spanish team member Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (who replaced much-messed-up Marcel Granollers in the singles) 6-3 6-4 6-2. Spain did get a consolation point as Albert Ramos beat Frank Dancevic 7-5 6-4, but still, Spain is out of contention for this year. Not even they could survive without their top three….

It’s interesting to note that two ties were decided 5-0, and five were 3-2. One was 3-1. Not one tie was settled 4-1.

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Davis Cup, mens tennis update, Michael Llodra, Sports, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tennis, Tennis News, Tomas Berdych