Holders the Czech Republic showed how tenaciously they will fight to retain the Davis Cup on Saturday, while five-time champions Spain avoided being knocked out in the first round for the first time since 2006 by winning their doubles rubber against Canada.
Tomas Berdych and Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic won a record-breaking doubles match against Swiss duo Marco Chiudinelli and Stanislas Wawrinka.
Their 7 hour, 2 minute victory, including a 24-22 final set, put the Czech Republic 2-1 ahead in the tie in Geneva, Switzerland, and they needed to win only one of the two singles rubbers yesterday.
Photo: AFP
The Czech Republic needed 13 match points before Switzerland finally cracked, but for France and Serbia things were far more straightforward as they took unassailable 3-0 leads in their matches against Israel and Belgium respectively. Argentina also clinched a quarter-final berth by taking a 3-0 lead against Germany.
Top seeds Spain, missing top players Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro and Fernando Verdasco, gave themselves a chance of joining them after Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez produced a gritty five-set win.
Trailing 2-0 after dropping both singles matches on Friday, Spain overcame Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-2 to stay alive in the tie.
However, Spain faced a tough task yesterday, with Canada’s world No. 15 Milos Raonic to play Granollers in the first match of the reverse singles.
The Czech Republic’s Rosol was formerly best known as the man who stunned Nadal at Wimbledon last year, but now he has another claim to fame after Saturday’s epic doubles win with Berdych.
Their 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 24-22 win was achieved despite fierce home support and was sealed by a double fault.
Wawrinka needed to recover his energy to take on Berdych again in yesterday’s first reverse singles.
France’s Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra thrashed Israel’s Dudi Sela and Jonathan Erlich 7-6 (7/3), 6-1, 6-0 in Rouen to give the hosts a 3-0 lead.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet both comfortably won their singles matches on Friday.
World No. 1 Djokovic was spared more exertion yesterday after 2010 winners Serbia built a 3-0 lead against Belgium when Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic came through in four sets against Steve Darcis and Ruben Bemelmans.
Djokovic, playing his first match since winning the Australian Open for a third consecutive year, crushed Olivier Rochus on Friday.
France face Argentina in the quarter-finals after the South Americans clinched victory with a day to spare against Germany.
David Nalbandian and Horacio Zeballos delighted the Buenos Aires crowd with a 6-1, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 victory against Christopher Kas and Tobias Kamke.
Kamke stood in for Philipp Kohlschreiber, who retired in the fifth set of Friday’s opening singles against Carlos Berlocq with a pulled hamstring.
Serbia face the US if they complete victory over Brazil, having forged a 2-1 lead.
Elsewhere, Austria kept their tie against Kazakhstan alive as Julian Knowle and Alexander Peya won the doubles to leave the hosts leading 2-1 in Astana, while Italy led Croatia 2-1.
In Asia/Oceania Group 1, Australia completed a 5-0 whitewash of Taiwan yesterday, with Marinko Matosevic beating Chen Ti 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 and Matthew Ebden downing Yang Tsung-hua 6-1, 6-2.
In other ties, Japan completed a 5-0 victory over Indonesia, South Korea defeated India 4-1 and Uzbekistan beat China 4-1.
Additional reporting by staff writer
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite