Davis Cup First Round

Here in this part of the world, Davis Cup World Group ties aren't broadcast live, so I've had to make do with news reports and fan reports. By all accounts, it was an eventful weekend with quite a few stunning upsets and an an unexpected exhibition.

There were, however, two teams that accomplished a whitewash of their opponents in their first-round ties. Argentina steamrolled Sweden despite David Nalbandian losing one set to Robin Soderling in the first singles match, and the doubles team of Agustin Calleri/David Nalbandian losing the third set in the clincher doubles match against Simon Aspelin/Jonas Bjorkman. Last year, Argentina had gotten to the semifinals before losing to the Slovak Republic, this year's defending finalist. Argentina now moves into a quarterfinal tie against Croatia, the defending champion. Croatia comfortably beat Austria 3-2, despite the team-up of Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic having to fight back from being down 2 sets to love in the clinching doubles match.

Russia also beat the Netherlands with a 5-0 score. Having lost to Croatia last year in the semifinal, the team of Nikolay Davydenko (now the top-ranked Russian as a result of Marat Safin's long-term absence due to injury), Dmitry Tursunov, and Igor Andreev/Mikhail Youzhny for the doubles will face France in the quarterfinals.

France moved into the quarterfinals after defeating Germany 3-2; Germany scored the two dead rubbers after France's Sebastien Grosjean pulled off his grudge match against Nicolas Kiefer, and Tommy Haas fell in five sets against Richard Gasquet. Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra sealed the deal upon defeating Haas and doubles partner Alexander Waske in four sets.

From BBC:

Haas looked set to repeat the easy victory over Gasquet he took in Australia, storming through the first set with the loss of just one game.

But the Frenchman came back to win 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-7 (1-7) 6-3, silencing the boisterous local support at the Gerry Weber stadium in Halle.

Grosjean lost a bad tempered quarter-final to Kiefer in Melbourne last month and there was more controversy in this game, before the Frenchman came through 7-5 7-6 (9-7) 6-0.

Kiefer - who lost to Roger Federer in the semi-finals in Australia - appeared to lose concentration after a couple of line calls went against him at the end of the second set.

Amid booing and whistling from the 10,000-strong crowd, Kiefer and German coach Patrick Kuehnen berated the umpire and match referee, but the decisions stood.

It's a shame that Germany was knocked out of contention so early; they knocked the Czech Republic out of the World Group last year.

Spain fell in first-round action for the second consecutive time, this year to Belarus.

From Davis Cup.com:

In the absence of Rafael Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero, the Spaniards were unable to compete with the Belarus team, which has now won its last 11 home ties on the fast Taraflex, which suits both Mirnyi and Voltchkov. Tommy Robredo was the only Spaniard to offer any resistance.

Mirnyi, 'The Beast' drove through both singles and doubles rubbers masterfully, killing his opponents' hopes with deadly serves and superior net play: "We are a united team which is able to earn the three points necessary for victory. It doesn't matter what order we would play in."

The central figure of the whole tie, however, was Belarus No.2 Vladimir Voltchkov. Undergoing a career crisis and currently ranked No. 301, Voltchkov competed hard from the baseline against David Ferrer, directing one ball after another to different corners of the court with ease. He made us remember the time when he reached the 2000 Wimbledon semifinals as an unknown and remains one of the most unpredictable players on the world stage.

Belarus will be competing in the quarterfinals against Australia, whose lack of Lleyton Hewitt's participation in their first-round tie against Switzerland gave opportunity for Chris Guccione, Peter Luczak, and Wayne Arthurs/Paul Hanley to rise to the occasion. Australia defeated Switzerland 3-2 with Guccione winning the deciding live fifth rubber. Switzerland was playing on home soil but without the participation of world #1 Roger Federer.

Chile upset defending finalist Slovakia 4-1. With Slovakia reeling from the loss of Karol Beck's services (he's been banned two years for doping), Chile's Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu made quick work of Michal Mertinak and Dominik Hrbaty in the singles, and teamed up in doubles to clinch the tie against Mertinak and Lukas Lacko. In 2004 Massu won the Olympic gold medal in men's singles, and he and Gonzalez also won the men's doubles gold medal. Chile will face the USA in the quarterfinals.

The USA split the first two singles matches in their tie against Romania. USA team #1 Andy Roddick had already won two sets against Andrei Pavel in the first singles match when nausea, vomiting, and dehydration took their toll. Pavel took the next three sets and scored the first win for Romania. James Blake quickly evened the score for the USA by beating Victor Hanescu.

The following day, the doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan were counting on winning their match against Hanescu and Horia Tecau, but were surprised at the ease of it when Hanescu retired after the first set due to injury. As a conciliatory gesture to the crowd for the lack of a match to watch, an impromptu doubles exhibition was then staged between the teams of Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan and Patrick McEnroe/John McEnroe. They played a pro-set, with the Bryans coming out on top 8-4.

From an eyewitness account:

...the announcer said they were looking at putting together an exhibition match.

At that point, the whole crowd looked at the broadcast booth, and started yelling "John McEnroe," "John McEnroe." John took off his coat and tie, and we thought well, maybe... We also thought that perhaps Rod Laver would come out, as he was there for the coin toss yesterday.

And then Patrick McEnroe started hitting with the Bryans, and then a short while later it was announced that the McEnroes would take on the Bryans in a doubles exhibition. And the crowd went wild. In fact, if anything, there were more people in the stands then than there were for the earlier match.

Bud Collins was designated the chair umpire, and the McEnroes took the court. It was one of the most entertaining matches I have ever seen. They played one set, winner to get 8 games.

And they did all the usual gags. The McEnroes protested line calls, with hands of their hips. We were cheering them, yelling "You can't be serious." They were throwing racquets, and threatening the Bryans, saying they were going to lose their Davis Dup positions if they don't the Macs win.

Now, Patrick is a bit rusty, especially with serving. But it was no problem, when he got down 0-40, John would step in as the designated server. And as Bud Collins said, for the Macs, they can take as many serves "as needed."

But the Macs' volleying is still pretty good. And they were up 2-0, until the Bryans started getting serious. We had the cheers timed with the Bryan Bunch -- earlier we were yelling "Bob," and the other side of the stadium would yell "Mike." Now we were yelling "McEnroe" and they would respond, "Bryan." It was really fun.

Roddick was able to recover enough to clinch the tie for the USA by beating Razvan Sabau, the replacement for Hanescu. Blake defeated Horia Tecau in the dead rubber, giving the USA a 4-1 win over Romania.

Davis Cup action will recommence on April 7-9, when the quarterfinals will be played between Argentina and Croatia, USA and Chile, Australia and Belarus, and France and Russia.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 10:38 AM