Argentina Humiliate Defending Champions 5-0

Argentina Humiliate Defending Champions 5-0

Sporting excellence often goes hand in hand with a ruthless streak, and that is certainly what Argentina displayed here today to record a 5-0 whitewash victory over Russia in this Davis Cup by BNP Paribas quarterfinal tie.Mariano Zabaleta and Mikhail Youzhny were brought in for David Nalbandian and the already departed Yevgeny Kafelnikov respectively in the first of the day’s rubbers. Zabaleta had never won a Davis Cup rubber before, but he was clearly determined to do so today, and possibly stake a claim for a place in the team for the semifinal.Playing confident, aggressive tennis from the outset, he took the first set 61, and seemed to be heading for a similarly comfortable scoreline in the second at 3-1 up. But a slight lapse in concentration let Youzhny back in, and he broke back.Zabaleta was not to be denied though, and some strong play saw him break again for 5-4. A fantastic backhand pass on matchpoint secured the rubber, to his obvious delight, 61 64 in just one hour eight minutes.Youzhny admitted that due to a wrist problem he was only able to play at 60% this weekend, but that he was pleased to have played today to get some valuable match-practice on clay."If Marat had been able to play three matches this weekend, and if I had been 100%, then maybe we could have won...but it would still have been very tough against Argentina here," he added.The final rubber saw Gaston Gaudio face Nikolay Davydenko in a match which produced some of the best tennis of the weekend, both men mixing aggression with some delicate touch play.The first set produced the first tie-break of the weekend, but once Gaudio took that seven points to four (he was never behind) the rubber was effectively over. To his credit Davydenko kept pressing in the second set, and Gaudio became clearly frustrated at his inability to close out the match quickly."I tried to fight for every ball today. For me it was important because next week I play in Estoril and I need to play better and fight better," said Davydenko.But despite the Russian's efforts Gaudio came through to record a 76(4) 63 victory, and in so doing created a little piece of history: since the inception of the World Group in 1981, no defending champion nation has lost a tie 5-0. Gaudio personally extended his impressive Davis Cup record to 13-1.For the Russians, this was a painful way to relinquish their hold on the Davis Cup, and the first time they have lost a tie 5-0 since as the USSR they lost to Spain in 1979. This is not a weekend of which they will have fond memories."I didn't expect this 5-0 [result], this is really unbelievable," said Argentine Captain Gustavo Luza. "Beating the last champion so...not easy, it wasn't easy, but with this score, I never dreamed it."Argentina has now repeated its semifinal showing of last year, but this time they will be hoping to go one further, although the formidable obstacle of Spain lies in their path. Like Argentina, Spain have played both of their ties this year at home and won them without the loss of a rubber: something will have to give when they meet.That semifinal will be played in Spain September 19-21, and although it will be away, it is likely that the Argentines will find themselves playing on their favoured clay courts."I think Spain is [the] favourite, because they have higher ranked players, their history, they are at home, but we are a very strong team, we are going to go there with a lot of humility and that is very dangerous for them," said Luza.Although Spain lead the head-to-head 1-0, that match was played in 1926 in Barcelona, ending in a 3-1 victory for the hosts. Appropriately enough, ‘Barcelona’ was the song heard over the stadium sound system as Argentina celebrated once more on court, under a warm sun that finally appeared today. Whether the sun will shine on them in Spain is another matter.

http://www.daviscup.com/news/matchreport.asp?id=12405