La Copa de la Vida

Well, this isn't World Cup soccer (I mean, futbol!), but staying alive in the Davis Cup World Group is still a matter of pride for the countries involved. This past weekend four nations battled for a place in the Davis Cup final, while eight other nations battled against relegation to the Zonal Groups. Davis Cup.com has the complete match reports and results.

After trumping Australia in a heated tie last July on Sydney grass courts, Argentina fell on hard courts in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. Guillermo Coria's serving hiccups cost him the first match against Karol Beck. David Nalbandian then kept Argentina afloat at 1-all the first day by beating Hrbaty.

Beck and teammate Michal Mertinak beat Nalbandian and Mariano Puerta in the doubles on the second day, and Hrbaty played his heart out in the singles match against Coria. His win clinched Slovakia's place in the final. The score for this tie ended 4-1 Slovak Republic after Puerta retired with a wrist injury in his match with Karol Kucera.

This is the first time Slovakia has reached the DC final, and they will be playing Croatia--also a first-time DC finalist after beating a Marat Safin-less Russia. Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny played the singles matches for Russia while Igor Andreev and Dmitry Tursunov played doubles. At the end of the first day, Russia and Croatia had split the singles matches: Davydenko had dropped a set but triumphed over Mario Ancic, while Ivan Ljubicic had slugged out a five-set win over Youzhny.

Ljubicic and Ancic pulled off Croatia's doubles win over Andreev and Tursunov on the second day, and Ljubicic hammered out a singles victory over Davydenko on the third day, deciding the tie in Croatia's favor. Tursunov prevailed over Croatian serving giant Ivo Karlovic but to no avail, as Croatia had already won three out of the five matches to be played.

For all the controversy over doubles changes in the ATP, the Davis Cup doubles match on the second day plays a pivotal role in a team's momentum.

From Peter Bodo's Tennis World:
Doubles is probably the most overlooked component in Davis Cup play, and one of the great things about the competition is the pivotal role of doubles. Great Davis Cup squads feature great doubles squads, period—and not necessarily one that includes a top singles player.

The U.S. is not a great Davis Cup squad, but thanks to Mike and Bob Bryan, it's a competitive one. We'd be lost without them.

For the US Davis Cup team, only the doubles match is considered a lock, as the Bryan twins are a model of consistency in winning. It is the doubles match win that puts the US ahead when one of the singles players fails to win on the first day. In March's first round knock-out loss to Croatia (on home turf, no less), the importance of their doubles matches was underscored when Bob and Mike lost against Ancic and Ljubicic, and Andy Roddick couldn't take out Ljubicic.

In their play-off tie against Belgium, James Blake put the US DC team on the back foot after losing in straight sets to Olivier Rochus. Roddick kept the team afloat with a resounding victory over Olivier's brother Christophe. The doubles win by Bob and Mike Bryan, however, took some of the pressure off both singles players to win their next matches. If Roddick couldn't beat Olivier, then maybe Blake could clinch the tie with a win over Christophe. Ultimately, Blake didn't have to play linchpin as Roddick scored the third win for the US (though his victory is marred by a controversial line call that resulted in a break of Oli Rochus's serve in the fifth set). This secures their place in the World Group for 2006.

Other nations dodged bullets and remain flying in formation in the World Group, but the Czech Republic was shot out of the sky due to the efforts of Germany's Tommy Haas.

Haas played 14 sets, both singles and doubles. He lost the opening singles match against Tomas Berdych in five sets, but Nicholas Kiefer pulled Germany up by its bootstraps and defeated Tomas Zib after dropping only one set against the Czech. The doubles match went to Germany, and it fell to Kiefer and Haas to win either matches if they wanted the promotion to World Group status. Kiefer struck the final blow, and Germany will assume a place in the 2006 World Group. The Czech Republic, in consequence, has lost its distinction as the only nation to have remained in the World Group since 1981.

NOTE: The part about the Germany-Czech Republic tie has been edited. Thanks to a reader who noted that Germany won the doubles and not the Czech Republic. It's that dratted new ATP doubles scoring scheme, I tell you! :)

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 12:25 PM