David Ferrer downs Radek Stepanek in the first rubber – Davis Cup, WG Final 2012
World number five, David Ferrer, capitalised on his recent run of form to defeat the former eighth ranked player, Radek Stepanek, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, in the first rubber of the Spain versus Czech Republic Davis Cup
final in Prague.
The Spaniard needed just less than three hours to win the first point for his country. Spain is looking to capture the biggest team event in the sport of tennis for the fourth time in the last five years and sixth overall.
Ferrer, who is leading the Spanish team in the absence of Rafael Nadal, has been running on top form recently. The 30-year-old captured his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Paris at the start of this month. Ferrer won
two of his three round robin matches at the season ending championships but unluckily still failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
Coming back to his latest match against Stepanek, Ferrer broke the Czech player in the eighth game and held his following serve to capture the opener 6-3.
The Spaniard and Stepanek exchanged a break of serve in the first eight games of the second set to square off the score at 4-4. Ferrer hit another blow to the Czech national in the ninth and capitalised on this time to win 6-4.
In a similar fashion to the second set, Ferrer nailed a break in the opening game and won his following serve to go up 2-0. The Spanish star struck again in the seventh to attain a 5-2 lead but lost the next two games to see his
lead cut to 4-5. Ferrer did not get broken for the second time and closed it 6-4.
The Spaniard said during the post match press conference, “I played very good. I'm very happy with my game. He played really good when he played back. It's not easy to play Radek on this type of court, because it's really fast.
I received really good. Maybe this was the key.”
He added, "In the important moments, I played better than Radek. I won in three sets. That's perfect. I'm very happy to win my game."
Ferrer defeated Stepanek in a five set thriller, when these countries faced each other in the 2009 Davis Cup final. Recalling that time, Ferrer went on to say, “It was a very emotional match. It was a really close match. I won
in five sets. That was my second Davis Cup [title] and first one at home in Spain, and one of the best moments of my career.”
Spain humiliated Czech Republic 5-0 in that tie but it was held on the red clay courts.
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