HOLDERS SPAIN CRASH OUT OF DAVIS CUP
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Karol Beck
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Karol Beck and Michal Mertinak beat Albert Costa and Rafael Nadal 7-6 6-4 7-6
in Bratislava for an unassailable 3-0 lead against holders Spain.
Spain's captain Jordi Arrese controversially left in-form Rafael Nadal
out of his team's singles line-up on Friday and the decision backfired as
Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco lost to Beck and Dominik Hrbaty respectively.
A delighted Beck said: "The first two times my country qualified for the quarter-finals
I wasn’t in the team. So this is the first time I have the chance to taste this joy
and it really feels great. I am also very happy with the way I played and carried
the pressure."
Last year's runners-up, the USA, also went out, beaten 3-2 by Croatia. The hero
for the visitors was Ivan Ljubicic who followed up his victory over Andre Agassi
on Friday with a battling 4-6 6-3 7-6 6-7 6-2 win over world number three Andy
Roddick. "This is going to be huge at home and around the world," Ljubicic said.
"To beat Andre, the Bryans and Roddick in three days - it's a great effort.
When I came here, I was thinking I could win just one singles, to keep up the
momentum and keep the confidence up. I did it all the way so it's amazing."
Roddick reflected on the missed chances: "You can go to any number of points,"
he said. "You can go back to one point in the doubles yesterday, you can go
back to one point today in the tiebreaker in the second set. There are many
specific points that didn't go our way this weekend, but that's the nature of
it. We didn’t go out and take them."
Paul-Henri Mathieu
clinched a 3-2 victory for France against Sweden in Strasbourg when he
overcame Thomas Johansson 6-1 6-4 6-7 6-4 in a tense final rubber.
"It was one of those great Davis Cup weekends," said French captain Guy Forget.
"Paul-Henri's performance was extraordinary. Paulo has made it. He's a great Davis Cup
player, I was thrilled by the quality of his game."
Australia moved into the quarter-finals when Wayne Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge
clinched the doubles rubber 4-6 6-3 2-6 6-4 7-5 against Austria's pairing of
Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer.
Victories for Lleyton Hewitt, playing his first match since his defeat to Marat Safin
in the Australian Open final four weeks ago, and Wayne Arthurs on the opening day
had put the home team in command.
World Group first round:
Slovak Republic 4 Spain 1 (Bratislava)
Switzerland 2 Netherlands 3 (Fribourg)
Australia 5 Austria 0 (Sydney)
Argentina 5 Czech Republic 0 (Buenos Aires)
Russia 4 Chile 1 (Moscow)
France 3 Sweden 2 (Strasbourg)
Romania 3 Belarus 2 (Brasov)
USA 2 Croatia 3 (Carson, LA)
Quarter-finals (to be played 15-17 July):
Slovak Republic v Netherlands
Australia v Argentina
Russia v France
Croatia v Romania
Davenport wins Dubai Open
Lindsay Davenport brought all her experience to bear in the final of the Dubai Open. The
world number one defeated Jelena Jankovic 6-4 3-6 6-4 to claim her first title of 2005.
"I never played my greatest here this week but I came through some difficult situations,"
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"I never played my greatest"
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she said after winning her 46th singles title. "Hopefully winning this will give me a lot
more confidence. In the public's mind, they were expecting me to win, based on the ranking
and my experience. But once the match started and I saw how she was playing I knew it was
anybody's match. It was very tight, I never knew what was going to happen, but I played
a great point at 4-all when I was down a break point. It was a really long rally and I
came up with some great shots in that rally and that really saved me."
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