Davis Cup semi-finals – day one wrap
France have taken a 2-0 lead over Argentina in their Davis Cup World Group semi-final, with Michael Llodra and Gael Monfils winning their singles rubbers on day one.
France may have been missing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet from their number for this vital tie, but even without that trio, the French team looked to be, at least on paper, more than a match for the Argentinians.
On their home soil in Lyon, the French were not about to be intimidated by the 2008 Davis Cup runners-up – after all, it was France who knocked defending champions Spain out of the competition in the previous round – and the hosts got the start they wanted courtesy of Llodra.
Llodra recorded a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Juan Monaco, the serve-and-volleyer hitting a total of 24 winners to his opponent’s 10, with eight aces flowing from Llodra’s racquet along the way.
So France took a 1-0 lead into the second rubber, but with Argentinian talisman David Nalbandian on court against Monfils next up, there was every chance that by the end of the day the South Americans could square the ledger.
It was the crowd-pleasing Monfils, however, who started the better of the two as he reeled off 10 aces and three service winners to take the first set.
Nalbandian though was never going to lie down, and the world No. 28 emerged as the aggressor in the second set with 16 winners to six, as Monfils’ serve deserted him – his first-serve percentage dropping to 45 per cent for the set as he managed just two aces and was broken twice.
As mysteriously as the world No. 15’s serve disappeared in the second set, it returned in the third, with 11 aces and a first serve percentage of 80 per cent ensuring Nalbandian never even had a chance to break Monfils’ serve, while the athletic Frenchman made the most of his sole break point opportunity.
After opening his first service game of the fourth set with his 24th ace of the match, however, Monfils was ultimately broken as Nalbandian took a 3-0 lead in the set. He wouldn’t win another game from there, with Monfils taking the next six to claim the 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.
In the other semi-final tie, Serbia were forced to make a late change to their line-up for the day after world No. 3 Novak Djokovic withdrew from the opening rubber against Radek Stepanek, with Viktor Troicki entering the fray instead.
With Stepanek struggling to recapture his 2009 form in an injury-interrupted season, and Troicki having defeated the world No. 35 twice on American hard courts this summer, it was a match-up that still looked like it might favour the Serbs.
That proved to be the case in the opening set, where Troicki hit 13 winners to two as he took the early lead, but Stepanek took the second with a much tidier performance than his opponent, producing just two unforced errors to Troicki’s 10 as he started to trouble Troicki at the net.
The 31-year-old Czech built on that momentum in the third, as his for the first time in the match he produced more winners for the set than his opponent – finishing with 18 to 15 – while capitalising on the one break point opportunity he created to move within a set of winning the opening tie for his team.
Putting an ordinary year behind him, Stepanek did just that, running out the 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 winner in two hours and 59 minutes.
That left Janko Tipsarevic with the unenviable task of defeating Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych to level the tie at the end of day one, but the Serbian No. 2 was up to the task and he secured the victory in four sets.
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