Fish/Isner defeat Golubev/Kukushkin to seal America’s victory at the Power Horse World Team Cup
Americans stood tall once again at the Power Horse World Team Cup, as the combination of Mardy Fish and John Isner outplayed the Kazakh duo of Andrey Golubev and Mikhail Kukushkin in the doubles matchup to seal the tie against
Kazakhstan in the round robin stage.
In Wednesday’s matchup at the Rochusclub in Dusseldorf, Germany, the American pair up rooted their opponents in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6(10), to register the second win for their team at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals)
World Tour 250 event.
The tie between America and Kazakhstan was levelled at 1-1, as Fish and Kukushkin won singles rubbers for their respective sides. It all came down to the doubles contest to decide the winner of the tie and the American duo rose
to the occasion to continue their winning run in the tournament. Team America his already defeated Sweden 2-1 in the opening tie and is the unbeaten team in the tournament, along with Argentina.
Fish and Isner developed a great coordination to take down their opponents in straight sets and inflict the second consecutive defeat to Kazakhstan in the World Team Cup. They had a ballistic start to the game, winning the opener
comprehensively to get one up in the contest. Golubev and Kukushkin made a tremendous comeback in the following set to give a tough time to the Americans but failed to convert their chances, ending on the losing side.
Fish and Isner were brilliant with their serve, delivering 84 per cent serve on target and winning 53 of 68 total serve points in the contest. They dropped serve just once in the second set and inflicted two break points to the
opponents. Fish and Isner exploited the lack of coordination among the Kazakhs to perfection and fired plenty of winners through the wide opened cracks between them.
The big American serve appeared unplayable for Golubev and Kukushkin in the opener. The Kazakh competitors failed to bag sufficient points to take down Fish and Isner in the first set, as their unforced errors proved too taxing.
A crucial serve break by the American duo in the seventh game made it easier for them to seal the first set at 6-3 and get the upper hand in the contest.
Intense tennis was observed in the second set, with the two teams exchanging serve breaks early and moving the set neck-to-neck before a tie breaker was enforced. The decider was extended to a total of 22 points, with the Fish
and Isner finally coming out as the winner at the end.
Up next for America on Thursday is Team Argentina, which is the only other unbeaten team in the competition.
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