Andy Roddick and James Blake gave the US a formidable 2-0 lead over defending champions Russia on Friday, putting the Americans one point away from their first Davis Cup crown in 12 years.
Roddick was untouchable on his serve in beating Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, while Blake turned in a gutsy performance to wrest a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3) triumph from Mikhail Youzhny on the opening day of the best-of-five match World Group final.
Their victories set the stage for the top-ranked doubles duo of Bob and Mike Bryan to seal the US' first Davis Cup trophy since 1995, when they beat Russia in the final.
PHOTO: AP
The Bryan brothers are slated to take on Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev.
Although Davydenko is ranked No. 4 in the world in singles, he is a combined 0-11 against Roddick and Blake and Russian captain Shamil Tarpischev elected not to use him for the singles.
Despite the outcome, Tarpischev said he did not regret the decision.
PHOTO: AFP
"I think that our best chances to beat Blake today were with Youzhny out of all the players that he have today," he said. "I don't think that Davydenko would have beaten Blake today."
Blake had been seen as the potential weak link in the US team, with a 4-7 record in live singles rubbers.
He needed three-and-a-half hours to subdue Youzhny, saying his willingness to stick with a more risky aggressive style was the key to the victory.
After Blake converted the first break point of the fourth set to take a 5-4 lead, he was immediately broken as he served for the match.
Undaunted, he held on to force the tiebreaker and said that when things got tight he drew on the memory of his four-set loss Thomas Johansson in the semi-finals in Sweden.
"I think the matches this year prepared me to know that I'm just going to go out and be aggressive and play that style," Blake said. "It was a style that cost me that game at 5-4, but it was a style that got me the win. If I would have gone out and played this match soft, playing not to lose, I would have been sitting here a loser that's for sure."
"I thought it was one of his best performances ever," US captain Patrick McEnroe said. "He's had some great, big matches, but I thought this has got to be right up there."
After taking the opening set 6-3, Blake earned the first break of the second set in the third game.
But Youzhny broke back and they went on serve to the tiebreaker, Blake wasting five break points in the ninth game.
Youzhny gained the upper hand in the third set with a break in the fifth game, but Blake briefly put the brakes on the Russian's comeback bid when he broke him to love as Youzhny served for the set.
Blake then won his third game in a row to make it 6-5, before Youzhny held serve to force the tiebreaker.
In contrast, Roddick never gave Tursunov a look-in, raining down 25 aces and saving the only break point he faced.
He had Tursunov on the run on the fast hardcourt at the 12,000-seat Memorial Coliseum in Portland and converted four of his 17 break opportunities.
"I don't know if he had his best day, but I made him play a lot of shots," Roddick said.
While Tursunov amply demonstrated his ability get out of a hole, he could not get his nose in front.
"When I was a break down, I was playing fairly well," he said. "But when the score was even, when there was no advantage, I wasn't playing my game. I was playing way too passive. I was very cautious and playing like I was afraid to miss."
Roddick avenged his loss to Tursunov in the Davis Cup semi-finals last year, when the Russian edged him 17-15 in the fifth set of the decisive match.
About the only tension Tursunov was able to produce came when he made Roddick sweat through seven set points to close out the opening set.
But Roddick insisted he did not feel confident of victory until he earned the second break of the third set.
That left him free to enjoy the adulation of the crowd in the final game, when he delivered one last service winner on match point to end it.
"The crowd was amazing. That last game, when they just stood up, that was probably one of the coolest moments of my career so far," said Roddick, who was 10-years-old when the US last hosted a Davis Cup final -- in 1992 when they beat Switzerland in Fort Worth, Texas.
Taiwan’s top male badminton player, Chou Tien-chen, on Saturday bowed out in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Thailand Open after losing in straight games to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The world No. 6 Chou, seeded fourth at the Super 500 tournament, lost to the world No. 2 Thai 21-7, 21-19 in 53 minutes. The victory improved Vitidsarn’s head-to-head record against Chou to 3-5. Chou, 36, trailed throughout the opening game after the score was tied 2-2. His relatively passive approach allowed the 25-year-old Thai to capitalize on Chou’s defensive clears with powerful smashes while committing few unforced errors. The Taiwanese
FRUSTRATION: Gauff smacked herself on the head with her racket before storming down the tunnel, emerging afterward to have a heated discussion with her coach Elina Svitolina on Saturday won the Italian Open after beating Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 to claim her third Rome title, while Jannik Sinner set a date with Casper Ruud in the men’s final. Ukraine’s Svitolina had not claimed a WTA 1000 title since her last victory at the Foro Italico eight years ago, but prevailed over the ever-erratic Gauff to claim her 20th tournament triumph. Saturday’s win over Gauff was her third in a row against a player in the top four of the world rankings — including Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina — ahead of the French
West Ham United’s 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday left Tottenham Hotspur realistically only needing one more point to win the battle for English Premier League survival, while Bruno Fernandes made history in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest. Spurs can avoid dropping out of the English top flight for the first time in nearly 50 years with victory at Chelsea today, but a draw would also likely suffice thanks to their much superior goal-difference over West Ham. “Overall bad performance. Too many things [went wrong], I think we gifted them the goals,” West Ham head caoch Nuno Espirito Santo
Jannik Sinner has his eyes on a first Roland Garros title after winning the Italian Open on Sunday to claim a record-extending sixth consecutive Masters 1000 tournament victory. World No. 1 Sinner beat Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 to complete the “Golden Masters” by winning all of the ATP’s top-ranked events, in the process becoming the first Italian men’s champion in Rome since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago. Only Novak Djokovic had previously won all nine Masters 1000 events before Sunday, but there was little doubt about Sinner triumphing over the past 10 days. Sinner heads to Roland Garros, which starts at the weekend,
RSS