There are many different ways to win the Davis Cup, including owning two spectacular all-court players who are capable of winning in singles and doubles; having home-court advantage all the way through the competition; or being blessed with incredible depth up and down the lineup.
Spain has a lethal combo: it owns the world’s best player in Rafael Nadal, who has now proved that he can win on every surface, and has fathomless depth, which allows captain Al Costa to select from seven top-30 players, including No. 12 David Ferrer, No. 15 Tommy Robredo, who just won two South American tournaments on dirt; and No. 27 Feliciano Lopez, a big-serving lefty who’s always threatening in doubles and has incredible value on fast surfaces. Spain is so deep that against Serbia, it wasn’t concerned that it was missing last year’s Davis Cup hero, Fernando Verdasco, or No. 21 Nicolas Almagro, who had just won a red-clay title in Acapulco.
Once again, Nadal showed Serbia’s Novak Djokovic that he has no business harboring dreams of victory on red clay. Nadal smacked his rival 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 to give Spain a 3-1 victory in their Davis Cup first-round tie and a place in the final eight against Germany. Nadal blew out Janko Tipsarevic after David Ferrer had also taken out Djokovic. Even though Serbia won the doubles to keep them alive on Sunday, Nadal was much too strong from the backcourt.
The U.S. has a money player too in the form of Andy Roddick, who once again led his squad to victory, this time over a Federer-less Swiss squad.
America’s closer served his way to a straight-set victory over Stan Wawrinka and Switzerland 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, the 11th time that Roddick has been given the opportunity to clinch a tie for the American team. And he’s been perfect.
After Wawrinka topped James Blake, Roddick hammered Marco Chiudinelli in straight sets. The Bryan Bros. then took care of Wawrinka/Yves Allegro in four sets, setting the stage for A-Rod to go yard.
The U.S. team’s next opponent will be Croatia, and the tie will be played in the European country the week after Wimbledon. Croatia shut out Chile at home and it was reported that they might choose to play the U.S. on clay indoors at a new arena in Split. Veteran Ivan Ljubicic, who won three matches against the U.S. in Carson in ‘05, might be coaxed back onto the talented team, which includes Mario Ancic, Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic.
“If I had to chose the surface to play against Andy Roddick, it would certainly be clay,” Cilic said.
In the Czech Republic, Radek Stepanek put aside his opening day loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and clinched the tie, besting Davis Cup greenhorn Gilles Simon of France 7-6, 6-3, 7-6 to lock the victory up at 3-1. The Czechs will play Argentina, who shutout the Netherlands at home.
In perhaps the most exciting tie ever played with no real fans in attendance (due to security concerns), Israel’s Harel Levy put his nation into the quarters for the first time after beating Swede Andreas Vinciguerra 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 8-6 in the fifth and deciding rubber. Levy pulled off the win just after his teammate, Dud Sela, had taken out Thomas Johansson in five sets. All of the singles ties in the rubber went five, and the doubles contest went four tight sets.
“Today it was not just Israel that won, sports won,” Israel captain Eyal Ran said.
Israel will face Russia at home, when Dmitry Tursunov defeated Romanian Victor Hanescu 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the first reverse singles.
