USA send Chile packing and progress to quarter-finals of the 2011 Davis Cup
The sixth seeded delegation from the USA posted a dominant 4-1 victory over Chile to move into the 2011 Davis Cup quarter-finals. World number eight, Andy Roddick, led the most decorated team in the tournament's history to overcome an early hiccup and easily
come out. The United States has won the Davis Trophy a record 32 times and has participated in the tournament since its inception in 1900.
Chile has never won the trophy and is unseeded in this year’s competition. The USA team consisted of Andy Roddick, world number 32 John Isner and the legendary doubles specialists, Mike and Bob Bryan. The Chilean team was made up of Paul Capdeville, Jorge
Aguilar, Nicolas Massu and Guillermo Rivera-Aranguiz.
The first match was scheduled for Friday at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile, as Andy Roddick took on Nicolas Massu. At one time, this would have been a relatively close match before the Chilean's massive dip in rankings, in which he fell from the
top 50 in the world to the lowly position of 241. Roddick has been in relatively decent form in the start to the year, as he has already won a tournament. This match-form helped him considerably, as he walloped Massu 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The contest did see
some shadow of the former Chilean number one emerge, as he took the second set, but this was to be a brief and singular occurrence.
The second match of the day must have given the Americans a scare, as Paul Capdeville put on an astonishing fight-back to stun John Isner in five long sets. The match started off as expected, with Isner winning the first two sets, both of which went into
tie break. The third and fourth sets were equally tough for both players, as neither gave an inch to take both to tie breaks again and Capdeville came out on top. With the match tied 2-2, a long 5th set looked imminent, as Capdeville secured the
first break of the match and held off Isner to win 6-7, 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4.
With the score tied, the contest went into Saturday, as the schedule for the day was the doubles match between Aguilar and Massu against Bryan and Bryan. The team of Bryan and Bryan are the world's top doubles team and have won 10 grand slam titles to date.
This billing proved definitive, as they ravaged the Chileans in straight sets to give their country the edge. The score for the match was 6-3, 6-3, 7-6, with the Chilean presence only being felt in the dying embers of the game.
The reverse singles were, as is usual, scheduled for Sunday. In the first match, Roddick faced Capdeville. Despite the Chilean winning a set, this match was never close. Capdeville, exhausted by his battle against Isner, bowed out 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 and 6-3.
This effectively sealed the victory for the Americans, as their Southern opponents were unable to come-back from the 3-1 deficit.
The last match of the rubber was thus rendered a dead tie. This reduced its length from a best of five encounters to a best of three, as Isner regained respect as he took out Rivera-Aranguiz 6-3, 6-7 and 7-5.
The USA progress into the quarters yet another time, as the most successful team in the tournament's history will take on red-hot Spain in the next round, in what is sure to be a thrilling encounter.
Tags: