Gasquet wins in Cup debut; Davydenko gets Russians even

Gasquet wins in Cup debut; Davydenko gets Russians even

July 15, 2005CBS SportsLine.com wire reports
MOSCOW -- Nikolay Davydenko defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-5, 6-2, 7-5 to draw Russia level with France at 1-1 after the opening singles in a Davis Cup World Group quarterfinal Friday.
Earlier, French teenager Richard Gasquet gave his country a 1-0 lead, marking his Davis Cup debut with victory over Igor Andreev 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1).
"That's the least I could have expected," said French captain Guy Forget. "One-all -- it's still very open."
Davydenko, leading Russia in the absence of Marat Safin who has a knee injury, saved two break points in the eighth game of the first set and then two more in the tenth before breaking Mathieu to go 1-0 up in the match.
The Russian, ranked seventh in the world, then made quick work of Mathieu in the second set, winning four consecutive games for a 2-0 lead on the temporary clay court at Olympic indoor stadium.
In the third set, Davydenko jumped to a 5-2 lead and served for the match, but Mathieu, ranked 57th, saved two match points and broke back.
He saved three more match points on Davydenko's serve and leveled the set at 5-5. But the Frenchman made two unforced errors to leave Davydenko serving for the match again. The Russian closed it in 2 hours and 59 minutes when the Frenchman netted a backhand.
"I won because of my confidence, because I'm in the top-10 and can win even if I'm not in my top form," said Davydenko. "I knew that Mathieu was not a tough player and running for every ball was enough to beat him."
Davydenko had 11 aces to Mathieu's five.

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