Davis Cup enters into semifinals stage: France vs Argentina, and Serbia vs Czech Republic
Davis Cup, the ‘premier international team event in men’s tennis’, is uniquely prestigious in its own way. It is presented and sponsored by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The Davis Cup event is for the men players (with the women’s equivalent being the Fed Cup) and is considered to be of great importance because in the Davis Cup, each team of players represents its country. Therefore, if a team wins a match, that effectively means a country has won a match against another country.
This year’s Davis cup is running smoothly and it has crossed its major stages, and now the world is waiting for the finals to come. The stage of the semifinals is well set, and countries are ready to challenge their opponents to clinch the prestigious title of being a world champion. The top four teams which have been able to qualify for the semifinals of the 2010 Davis Cup are France, Argentina, Serbia and Czech Republic. This time, the Davis Cup has seen some incredibly exciting matches, as some of the world’s best players compete against each other for their respective countries.
Talking about the world’s best players, no one can ignore the existence of the Serbian Champ and one of the world’s top players, Novak Djokovic. Djokovic is a member of the Serbian team which is making its way strongly to the finals of the Davis Cup. In the quarterfinals, Novak beat Marin Cilic of Croatia to take Serbia to the semifinals (he won both his singles matches, and Serbia won 4-1 overall against Croatia). Djokovic won the match against Cilic 6-3, 6-3 and 6-2. Serbia is currently considered as the strongest among all, not only in the singles format but also in doubles events, where its performance has been remarkable. People claim doubles as the key for Serbia, but the Serbians are very strong in the singles format of the game as well.
The second team making its place in the semifinals is the Argentinean team. Argentina sealed a tense 3-2 victory over Russia and made its place in the top four of the tournament. The deciding match was won by David Nalbandian. He won his match against the Russian Mikhail Youzhny very convincingly in straight sets (7-6, 6-4, and 6-3). Russian ace Nikolay Davydenko thrashed Eduardo Schwank by 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 and 6-4, and made it a tie between Russia and Argentina, but it was Nalbandian who played his part effectively for his country. Despite winning his match, David looked a bit disappointed and expressed his views that he was not happy with the way he played. He added that he played better in the previous Davis Cup as compared to this season.
However, he was happy to return to the tennis court after a long time. The Argentinean ace’s brilliant performance just coming out of injury was very surprising. Nalbandian, who has been facing hamstring problems, expressed his happiness after successfully getting back to the tennis court. He added that he had to work really hard for this superb comeback.
Chile lost 4-1 to Czech Republic in the quarterfinals (they were missing their star player Fernando Gonzalez, who was out injured), and Czech Republic booked its place in the semifinals on Saturday. Meanwhile, France whitewashed Spain 5-0 to reach the semifinal stages for the first time in six years. Gael Monfils and Michael Llodra were the star players for France. In the semifinal matches of the Davis Cup, France will battle it out against Argentina, and the Serbians will play against Czech Republic.
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