Fernando Verdasco won the Davis Cup for Spain on Sunday, beating Argentina’s Jose Acasuso 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 to give his country a third title after 2000 and 2004 and deny the hosts a first.
Verdasco’s success in 3 hours, 56 minutes gave the Spanish, shorn of the services of injured world No. 1 Rafael Nadal, a winning 3-1 lead.
“It’s like a dream come true — it’s the most beautiful day of my life,” Verdasco said. “It’s a nice sensation. It’s a great day for all the people in Spain.”
PHOTO: AFP
Argentina had been hoping to land their first ever triumph in the competition after final losses away from home in 1981 against the US and Russia two years ago — but Verdasco produced a fighting performance against a partisan crowd to secure the “salad bowl” for the Spanish.
A thumping drive on his third match point wrapped up the win for Verdasco against a cramping opponent who ran out of steam after going two sets to one ahead and the Spaniard pumped his fists, then embraced his squadmates as the home crowd looked on aghast.
Spanish skipper Emilio Sanchez Vicario paid tribute to his Verdasco.
“It was an incredible match — all the guys were so nervous. Fernando was just the better player — he’s very strong,” Sanchez Vicario said.
Acasuso said the defeat was hard to take.
“There was a lot of sadness in the locker room after the loss and the fact that three of the four of us lost to Russia two years ago means that the pain was double,” he said.
Sunday’s match was to have pitted up-and-coming Argentine star Juan Martin del Potro against David Ferrer but the former had to cry off after suffering a groin strain during his opening-day loss to Feliciano Lopez while Ferrer was shellshocked by Friday’s drubbing at the hands of David Nalbandian.
Acasuso, a 26-year-old from Buenos Aires with only three minor career titles to his name, almost became a Davis Cup hero when he took Russia’s Marat Safin to five sets in the decisive rubber during the 2006 final.
But once again he was unable to last the distance.
Verdasco, a 25-year-old from Madrid with two career titles, made a tremendous start and did his best to dampen down the raucous 11,000 home crowd as he broke to love for a 4-2 lead before a wide forehand from his rival clinched the opening set in 35 minutes.
The Spaniard promptly suffered an attack of the jitters, twice double-faulting as he gifted Acasuso a 2-0 lead in the second set and the Argentine then held to streak 3-0 clear.
A further pair of double faults almost cost Verdasco dear but he just held for 2-4.
There followed a run of breaks as Verdasco forced the tiebreak, where Acasuso was fastest out of the blocks to level the contest.
Verdasco had pulled off a momentous showing on Saturday alongside Lopez to see off Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri in the doubles to bring Spain to the brink of another title which many had thought beyond them in the injury absence of Nadal.
The protagonists had split the opening-day singles with Lopez stunning No.1 Argentine Del Potro after Nalbandian had crushed Ferrer.
Worryingly for Argentina, in the last 36 years of Davis Cup finals, only three times had the doubles victors not gone on to win the title.
But Acasuso was not dwelling on that statistic and it was Verdasco who was feeling the heat as yet another double fault saw him drop serve at the start of the third set with Acasuso pounding down a slew of big forehands.
The pair traded breaks but Acasuso seized the moment as he belted down an ace before a confident overhead smash set up set point — which he netted and then drove wide on his second opportunity.
Third time round an ace finally moved him a set clear.
Verdasco pocketed a break for a 4-2 lead in the fourth, then served out to love to force a decider, where he broke twice in quick succession to race 4-0 clear.
The hard work done, he let slip two chances before completing the win on his third match point.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier