Eurosport - Sun, 21 Sep 22:14:00 2008
Teenager Juan Martin del Potro demolished Igor Andreev in straight sets to give Argentina a 3-2 win over Russia and send them into a Davis Cup final against Spain.
Del Potro, two days short of his 20th birthday and playing his first home Davis Cup tie, won 6-4 6-2 6-1 as Argentina avenged their 2006 final defeat by the same opponents.
Earlier, Nikolay Davydenko hauled the Russians back into the tie by beating a tired David Nalbandian 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 6-0. Argentina, who led 2-0 on Friday, will host Spain in November's final after chalking up their 13th successive home win, a run stretching back to 1998.
Nalbandian's defeat, only his fourth in 20 Davis Cup singles and his first at home, left an eerie silence over the Parque Roca court, but Del Potro quickly restored the crowd's enthusiasm by winning the first set.
Andreev had no answer to Del Potro's ground strokes and, after both players lost their opening service games in the second set, Del Potro broke in the fifth game and again in the seventh when Andreev sent a forehand into the net.
Growing in confidence, Del Potro, who also beat Davydenko in straight sets on Friday, was even more dominant as he polished off the third set in only 32 minutes, finishing the tie when Andreev overhit a forehand.
Del Potro, who won four successive ATP tournaments this year, was mobbed by his team at the end and was too emotional to say anything during the on-court interview except to thank the crowd.
Nalbandian, involved in a five-set doubles match on Saturday, had no complaints about his defeat.
"It was a tough game and he played very well," he said. "He won fair and square."
Nalbandian won his first set as Davydenko, who said during the Olympics that he had lost his hunger for the game, once again looked out of sorts.
But the world number six suddenly found his game, making Nalbandian chase around as he sprayed the ball to all corners of the court.
After wrapping up the second set, Davydenko went 4-1 ahead in the third and, although Nalbandian managed to pull level, Davydenko easily won the tiebreak 7-2.
The Russian then reeled off the final set in only 33 minutes,
During the third set, Davydenko protested to the umpire after Nalbandian tried to whip up the crowd.
"It's one thing for the home crowd to spontaneously get behind their team, but I don't think it's either very professional or pretty for a player to stir them up," he said.
Comment 1 - 8 of 8
If John McEnroe says that, it's good enough for me. CHEERS
as far as the del potro thing i was watching the us open coverage on USA Network and john mcenroe was doing the broadcast and he said that potro's best surface is clay, i haven't watched del potro enough to know so i was going based on what he said.
Hey there football4life. Apparently (I was watching the news in a crowded bar), the surface is going to be fast carpet and indoors, though I think it has to be confirmed. Unusually for Argentine players, I've heard that Del Potro has said that hard is his favourite surface, though admittedly, that's second hand and I don't know if it's reliable info. Agreed that voting to play against Nadal on clay (even for clay-court specialists) is a bit like a Turkey voting for Christmas. True also that Ferrer's current ranking (like Nalbandian's) is based on his excellent form of this time last year and doesn't represent his current form. The vagaries of the ranking system, but I guess that he'll soon be dropping down the rankings, unless he can find his best form again for the end of the season. CHEERS
the surface is a problem rhymes, as Del Potro's favorite surface is clay, but that would play right into rafa's strength. so i think your right they probably will go hard in an attempt to weaken nadal and dismantle ferrer (ferrer is very overrated btw there are at least 15 players better than him in tennis).
Spain were too good for the crippled US team but Del Potro is a marvel. The final won't be a walkthrough for Nadal and Ferrer. A real awesome final at last. Go Argentina!
hope potro will trash rafa in the final..argentine to win ths time..
Good win for Davydenko. Good comeback attempt by Russia. Didn't see any of the match but Del Potro's wins and scorelines look pretty awesome, confirming his status as the "rookie" of the year, thus far. Hard to see him not going on to become one of the big stars of tennis in the coming years. What surface will Argentina choose to take on Spain in the final? My guess is that they may go for hard but it's just a guess. CHEERS
One and only :)
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