Near perfect tennis by World No. 1 Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s Davis Cup World Group semifinal match against Andy Roddick, destroyed the United States hopes of winning a second straight Davis Cup title.After Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco were unable to clinch the semifinal victory for Spain after losing to Mike Bryan and Mardy Fish in their doubles match on Saturday, all pressure came down to Nadal, the ATP Tour’s most dependable clay court player. Nadal smashed 60 winners en route to an easy, 6-4, 6-0, 6-4, win over Roddick, a player who isn’t very comfortable on the red clay.
"Today I play an almost perfect match and it is very, very exciting," said Nadal, who has now won ten straight Davis Cup singles matches. "Today I played very well. I shocked myself with some of the winners I played...was near perfect tennis."
Roddick, a former World No. 1 and US Open champion, entered this weekend’s Davis Cup tie on a nine match winning, but will leave Madrid, Spain, on a two match losing streak, having already lost to David Ferrer in five sets on Friday.
In a match that had no breaks of serve, Feliciano Lopez held off rookie Davis Cup team member Sam Querrey, 7-6(3), 7-6(4), to cap off a 4-1 victory for Spain over Patrick McEnroe’s United States squad.
As the Spaniards breezed to victory today, the Argentina squad had a small hiccup during its first match, when usually dependable World No. 7 David Nalbandian couldn’t rise to the occasion against Nikolay Davydenko, losing in four sets to the veteran Russian. Davydenko downed the hometown crowd favorite, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2), 6-0, to keep the hopes alive for the visiting Russian squad. With his first career Davis Cup loss happening on clay today, Nalbandian’s record drops to 9-1.
It would all come down to Russia’s Igor Andreev matching up against 19-year-old rising star Juan Martin Del Potro (pictured), a winner of four singles titles this summer and a quarterfinal appearance at the recent US Open in New York. To push the Argentine’s past the Russians and earn a berth in the Davis Cup final for the first time since 2006, Argentina’s youngster would have to take care of business, which he has been doing in fine fashion.
Despite a strong fight from the Russian in the first set, Del Potro easily dispatched Andreev, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, earning a 3-2 victory for Argentina. After Andreev’s backhand flew out on match point, the soon to be 20-year-old Argentine jumped into the arms of captain Alberto Mancini, as the stadium was showered with champagne and colored confetti. Del Potro is now a winner of 25 of his last 26 matches, dating back to Wimbledon. It was a fitting end to a remarkable last few months of tennis for Del Potro.
Spain enters the Davis Cup final for the first time since 2004, where they defeated the United States. They also won the title in 2000 by defeating Australia. Argentina has never won the title, but was the runner-up in 1981 and 2006. Argentina will host Spain during the weekend of November 21-23, with Buenos Aires being the most likely city in Argentina to host the final.
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Juan Martin Del Potro is the man of the moment. After winning 4 titles heading into the US Open and making a deep run in New York, he is definitely proving that he can compete with the world's best players and that one day he will be in the Top 10.
I was surprised that David Nalbandian didn't win the semifinal for Argentina in the first match on Sunday against Nikolay Davydenko, but there was no need to worry as Del Potro took care of business easily over Igor Andreev to close out a 3-2 Argentina win over Russia.
Spain vs. Argentina in November should be an outstanding Davis Cup final.
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