Davis Cup Results

Written by: on 15th September 2013
Davis Cup World Group semi final
Davis Cup Results

epa03868713 Serbia's Novak Djokovic in action against Canadian tennis player Milos Raonic during the Davis Cup World Group semi final between Serbia and Canada in Belgrade, Serbia, 15 September 2013. EPA/SRDJAN SUKI  |

Davis Cup

Building a truly perfect Davis Cup team is pretty close to impossible. Ideally, you want three good singles players and three good doubles players — and, unless you have two guys who are good in both singles and doubles, that means six players. But, of course, you only get four. Serbia might have been in the Davis Cup final in four matches had they had a doubles player to go with Nenad Zimonjic. But they didn’t. So Novak Djokovic, instead of facing Milos Raonic with the chance to clinch the tie, instead found himself having to keep Serbia alive in the contest for the final.

To be sure, he was up to the task. It wasn’t even that close a match. 7-6 6-2 6-2, and Serbia and Canada were level. But that meant that the tie would be settled by Janko Tipsarevic and Vasek Pospisil. Tipsarevic is the higher-ranked, of course — but he has been having a miserable year, and he doesn’t seem to like pressure. Pospisil… is too new for us even to know how he likes pressure. Unfortunately, he was very tired, and his ankle apparently was giving him trouble. And he played like it, going down 7-6 6-2 5-3. Then, perhaps, Tipsarevic’s nerves acted up; he was broken as he served for the final. He blew two match points on serve in the third set tiebreak, too. But he bounced back to clinch the tie 7-6 6-2 7-6.

It is an interesting prospect for Canada: Can Pospisil develop into a fully-rounded singles player before Daniel Nestor retires from doubles? If so, they might have chances in future. But time may be short. Raonic and Pospisil may well be enough to keep Canada in the World Group, but getting past the semifinal will probably take more.

The tie between the Czechs and Argentina had been settled, so naturally it was substitution time. That at least gave the Argentines some consolation; Horacio Zeballos upset Lukas Rosol 4-6 7-6 6-4 to put the Argentines on the board. And the Czechs then had Jiri Vesely play the final singles rubber. Leonardo Mayer beat him 6-4 6-4. So the final score of the tie was officially 3-2. But it was really 3-0-and-we-aren’t-worried-any-more.

In the World Group playoffs, the Dutch had already beaten the Austrians, but they just kept on pushing. Jesse Huta Galung took the place of Robin Haase in the reverse singles, but nothing could redeem Jurgen Melzer’s miserable weekend. Huta Galung beat him 3-6 7-5 6-3. At least they didn’t make Oliver Marach play another singles match; he was allowed to withdraw from his contest with Thiemo de Bakker, making the official score 5-0 Netherlands.

So who is the real hero in a tie in which one guy wins two rubbers which he is expected to win and one guy wins only one rubber — but that’s the rubber that clinches the tie? The way some stories are telling it, Go Soeda’s 1-1 record means more than Kei Nishikori’s 2-0 result. Still, the Japanese couldn’t have beaten Columbia without Soeda’s win. Nishikori kept Japan alive by beating Santiago Giraldo 6-1 6-2 6-4, and then Soeda made up for his earlier failure by beating Alejandro Falla 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-3 to give Japan a 3-2 win.

Andy Murray was the first player to go 3-0 for the weekend; he clinched for Britain by beating Croatia’s Ivan Dodig 6-4 6-2 6-4. The British then made it 4-1 as Daniel Evans beat substitute Mate Pavic 6-4 7-6.

The Swiss were up 3-0 on Ecuador, so everybody substituted in the reverse singles — and it didn’t change anything. Michael Lammer of Switzerland made the score 4-0 by beating Roberto Quiroz 6-3 2-6 6-2. Ecuador did win the fifth match — but that was pretty clearly a case of “Oh, who cares”; substitute Gonzalo Escobar beat a flat Marco Chiudinelli 6-0 7-5.

Poland was officially still alive entering Sunday’s action, but they were almost as short on hope as they were on Jerzy Janowicz — and it didn’t take long to settle things. Bernard Tomic clinched by beating Lukasz Kubot 6-4 7-6 6-3. Nick Kyrgios then substituted for Lleyton Hewitt — but he didn’t have much to do; Michal Przysiezny quit down 4-1, and Australia had a 4-1 victory.

Spain’s dominance of Ukraine was so complete that they could substitute a doubles specialist and still win the point. In the fourth match, Marc Lopez beat Denys Molchanov 6-3 6-3. The Ukrainians then put in Vladyslav Manafov to face Fernando Verdasco (interesting that Tommy Robredo didn’t substitute for Verdasco). It can’t have been much fun for Manafov; Verdasco completed the sweep 6-2 6-1.

You don’t often see substitutions while a tie is live, but Germany did it — and it worked. Daniel Brands replaced Philipp Kohlschreiber, and beat Thomaz Bellucci 6-4 6-2 6-3. That meant that three different players had won singles points for Germany — but still, it was three points, and a clinch. Oddly enough, there were no substitutions in the final match; Florian Mayer took on Rogerio Dutra Silva. Mayer won that 6-4 6-4, making the final score 4-1 in the tie.

The tie between Israel and the Belgians went down to the wire (one of only two playoff ties to feature a live fifth rubber), with Dudi Sela blowing it again. Ruben Bemelmans beat him 7-5 3-6 6-0 6-4, leaving Steve Darcis and Amir Weintraub to decide the tie. And Weintraub couldn’t follow up on his first-rubber heroics; he played like his usual self, and Darcis beat him 6-2 6-2 6-2. It must be tough to be the guy who ends up suffering the final loss after the guy who should have won the big matches lost them both….

 

THIS WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Davis Cup

NEXT WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Metz (250/Indoor Hard). Defending Champion: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
St. Petersburg (250/Indoor Hard). Defending Champion: Martin Klizan

******** STATS AND FACTS ********

RANKINGS

**DRAWS

Metz — Week of September 15


1 Tsonga
--bye
Delbonis
Roger-Vasselin
Kamke
Qualifier
Qualifier
7 Chardy

4 Kohlschreiber
--bye
Berlocq
Vesely
Haider-Maurer
Lacko
Qualifier
8 F Mayer

5 Paire
Becker
Qualifier
Olivetti (WC)
Mahut
L Mayer
--bye
3 Seppi

6 Querrey
Karlovic
Sijsling
Mathieu (WC)
de Schepper
Huta Galung
--bye
2 Simon (WC)

St. Petersburg — Week of September 15


1 Fognini
Qualifier
Przysiezny
Ramos
Hanescu
Khachanov (WC)
Berankis
7 Rosol

3 Tipsarevic
Bautista Agut
Mannarino
Donskoy
Zopp (PR)
Gimeno-Traver
Elgin (WC)
6 Gulbis

5 Verdasco
Stakhovsky
Lorenzi
Sousa
Zeballos
Qualifier
Baghdatis
4 Tursunov

8 Istomin
Qualifier
Struff
Golubev
Qualifier
Garcia-Lopez
Karatsev (WC)
2 Youzhny

******** SCORES ********

 

Davis Cup

World Group Semifinal
Serbia hosts Canada (Indoor Clay)
Friday: Tied 1-1
Novak Djokovic def. Vasek Pospisil 6-2 6-0 6-4
Milos Raonic def. Janko Tipsarevic 5-7 6-3 3-6 6-3 10-8
Saturday: Canada leads 2-1
Nestor/Pospisil def. Bozoljac/Zimonjic 6-7(6-8) 6-4 3-6 7-6(7-5) 10-8
Sunday: Serbia wins 3-2
Novak Djokovic def. Milos Raonic 7-6(7-1) 6-2 6-2
Janko Tipsarevic def. Vasek Pospisil 7-6(7-3) 6-2 7-6(8-6)
Czech Republic hosts Argentina (Indoor Hard)
Friday: Czech Republic leads 2-0
Radek Stepanek def. Juan Monaco 7-6(7-3) 6-3 6-2
Tomas Berdych def. Leonardo Mayer 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-4
Saturday: Czech Republic clinches 3-0
Berdych/Stepanek def. Berlocq/Zeballos 6-3 6-4 6-2
Sunday: Czech Republic wins 3-2
Horacio Zeballos def. Lukas Rosol 4-6 7-6(8-6) 6-4
Leonardo Mayer def. Jiri Vesely 6-4 6-4

World Group Playoff
Spain defeats Ukraine 5-0
Netherlands defeats Austria 5-0
Great Britain defeats Croatia 4-1
Switzerland defeats Ecuador 4-1
Germany defeats Brazil 4-1
Australia defeats Poland 4-1
Belgium defeats Israel 3-2
Japan defeats Columbia 3-2

 

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