The Czech Republic wasted little time wrapping up their Davis Cup quarter-final tie against Japan after the defending champions eased to a straight-sets victory in the doubles rubber yesterday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in Tokyo.
After battling to singles wins on Friday, Radek Stepanek and Lukas Rosol paired up for a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Tatsuma Ito and Yasutaka Uchiyama at the Ariake Coliseum to set up a last-four encounter against either Germany or France.
In a match that lasted 2 hours, 20 minutes, the Czech pairing won all three sets with a break of serve in the 10th game against the error-prone Japanese to remain on course for a third straight Davis Cup title and fourth overall.
Photo: EPA
Rosol was brought in as a substitute for Jiri Vesely by Czech captain Jaroslav Navratil yesterday morning and the move proved inspired with the world No. 40 exhibiting a strong serve and playing especially well from the baseline.
The Czech Republic are due to face the winner of the France, Germany tie in the semi-finals.
WAWRINKA BEATEN
Photo: Reuters
AFP, PARIS
Roger Federer saved Stanislas Wawrinka’s blushes after the Australian Open champion suffered a shock defeat to unheralded Kazakh Andrey Golubev in the Davis Cup quarter-finals on Friday.
The world No. 3 was stunned 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) by 64th ranked Golubev as Kazakhstan took an early 1-0 lead over Switzerland in Geneva.
However, 17-time Grand Slam winner Federer then stormed to a straight sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win over Mikhail Kukushkin to level the tie.
Golubev’s victory, achieved in just under three-and-a-quarter hours, revived bad memories for Wawrinka, who lost his matches — a singles and a doubles rubber — in a 5-0 whitewash victory for Kazakhstan over Switzerland in Astana in 2010.
“I know you’re going to consult all the sports psychologists to find out why I lost to Golubev,” Wawrinka said. “It came down to a few points that made the difference, which he was able to play freely.”
An understated Golubev said after one of his biggest career wins: “It was a great match I think for me. The key was to try and be aggressive and not to give him too much time.”
“I think I did good,” he added.
Federer, the world No. 4, kept his cool to record a second straight-sets win over 56th-ranked Kukushkin in as many meetings, after having beaten the Kazakh in the first round of Wimbledon in 2011.
“It was important to stay calm,” Federer said.
“I was well concentrated, felt good in my legs and served well,” he added.
ITALY, BRITAIN
AFP, NAPLES, Italy
Britain’s Davis Cup quarter-final with Italy was in the balance on Friday when poor light halted play during the second rubber between Britain’s Andy Murray and Italy’s Andreas Seppi.
Hosts Italy earlier took a 1-0 lead in the World Group tie when national No. 1 Fabio Fognini beat James Ward, ranked 161 in the world, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Murray, who suffered a stomach bug on Thursday, battled to win the first set on the red clay of Tennis Club Napoli, but the Briton was pushed all the way in a closely-fought second set.
He had to save four set points on his way to eventually leveling at 5-5, after which officials halted play due to poor light.
The second set took it out of Murray, who was growing increasingly frustrated as a series of unforced errors — mostly backhand returns into the net — kept Seppi in the game.
Seppi broke Murray to lead 4-2 when the Scot netted a backhand return, only for Murray to break back to 4-3 and then hold serve to pull level.
Murray then missed three chances to break Seppi again during a lengthy ninth game, allowing the Italian to take a 5-4 lead, after which Murray drew his hand across his neck in a gesture to his coach that appeared to indicate the extent of his struggles.
With the 10th game potentially crucial to the tie, Murray dug deep.
The Scot built a 40-30 lead, but allowed Seppi back in when he sliced yet another backhand into the net, and had to battle to save four set points before leaving the court with the job to finish on Saturday, when Simone Bolelli and Paolo Lorenzi are scheduled to meet British pair Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in the doubles.
FRANCE, GERMANY
AFP, NANCY, France
Germany shrugged off the absence of their top six players to take a shock 2-0 lead over France in their Davis Cup quarter-final on Friday.
Julien Benneteau slumped to a 7-6 (10/8), 6-3, 6-2 loss to world No. 96 Tobias Kamke in the day’s opening rubber.
In the second match, world No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga squandered a match point to lose 5-7, 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-6 (10/8), 8-6 to Peter Gojowczyk, the world No. 119.
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
Team Taiwan’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) journey ended last night when South Korea beat Australia 7-2 and won the tiebreaker with Australia and Taiwan to advance to the tournament’s quarter-finals in Miami. South Korea earned its spot by scoring a run in the top of the ninth to do just enough under the tiebreaker rules to advance. The result saw Taiwan, South Korea and Australia tied for second in WBC Pool C behind undefeated Japan with 2-2 records. The tiebreaker was determined by dividing a team’s total runs allowed by the total number of defensive outs in games among the tied teams, and
RSS