Juan Martin Del Potro and Tomas Berdych win rubbers to keep it even – Davis Cup WG Semi-Finals 2012
Highly-anticipated semi-final tie of the Davis Cup World Group witnessed two thrilling singles rubbers against the home favourite Argentine squad and the strong Czech team on Friday afternoon. World number eight, Juan Martin Del Potro from Argentina, and the Czech spearhead, Tomas Berdych, won their respective singles matches to keep the score line levelled at 1-1 by the end of day one.
It was already expected that these two in-form tennis aces will win their individual rubbers with comprehensive ease against the underdog opponents and it exactly happened like that. Del Potro literally had no real troubles in disposing of the 40th ranked Czech veteran, Radek Stepanek, in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, taking two hours and 41 minutes of play. The word number eight banged in seven aces and broke his opponent’s serve five out of seven times in the contest to stamp his authority.
Stepanek badly failed to cop the belligerence of the former US Open champion, Del Potro, in the contest and frittered away seven out of eight priceless break opportunities to finish on the losing side in the end. He coughed 40 unforced errors, including four double faults, in the contest to let the Argentine register a 1-0 lead in the tie.
“To play here in my country with this fantastic crowd is amazing for me. I really enjoyed it,” said Del Potro. “I played really well. I took all my opportunities to break his serve.”
The visitors hit back immediately in the following rubber, with the world number six, Berdych, coming out victorious in a gruelling five-setter against the Argentinean number two, Juan Monaco. The contest took four hours and two minutes to conclude in the favour of Berdych, 6-1, 4-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
No expected such intense contest between these two contenders but Monaco posted a solid resistance to stretch the hot favourite Czech to his limits before he eventually fell in the fifth set of the match. The Argentine stung 10 out of 16 break points in the contest but 11 out of 15 serve breaks from Berdych took the better of him in the end.
“I had pretty much nothing to do but to believe in myself and that I’m a player in the certain level, and I’m able to turn the matches like this even with a crowd like that,” Berdych said. “Everything that was going for him, I was able to get energy from that and that was the result.”
The doubles matchup between home side duo, Carlos Berlocq and Eduardo Schwank, and the Czech combination of Lukas Rosol and Ivo Minar will be played on Saturday.
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