TENNIS 2015 DAVIS CUP – A top drawer weekend of tennis drew to an end in the Davis Cup with the exception of the South American duel in Buenos Aires where the deciding rubber between Federico Delbonis and Thomaz Bellucci had to be delayed until Monday due to bad light. Bruno Bergareche Sans
A top drawer weekend of tennis drew to an end in the Davis Cup with the exception of the South American duel in Buenos Aires where the deciding rubber between Federico Delbonis and Thomaz Bellucci had to be delayed until Monday due to bad light after the Argentine took the opener 6-3. The reason why the match started so late on was because the day’s opening match between Leo Mayer and Joao Souza went down in the history books as the longest ever Davis Cup match in the history of the competition after six hours and forty two minutes which ended happily for the hosts as Mayer pulled through 7-6 7-6 5-7 5-7 15-13.
Much more straightforward was Bernard Tomic’s victory over Lukas Rosol which helped Australia to advance from the first round of the Davis Cup for the first time since 2006, when Peter Luczak and Chris Guccione steered the Aussies past Switzerland…how times have changed down under. With an emergence of young talent, the kangaroos will be ones to look out for in this year’s competition and will probably fancy their chances at home against Kazakhstan in the quarter finals.
The Asians booked their tickets in the last eight with the turnaround of the weekend against Italy. Heading in to the final day’s singles, the Kazakhs were on the brink of elimination at 1-2 but an on-song Kukushkin rifled winner after winner past Seppi to defeat the Italian in three straight sets before Aleksandr Nedovyesov rallied past last campaign’s hero Fognini in five sets to reach their fourth quarter final in five years.
The other nation that confirmed its presence in the quarter finals on Sunday was Belgium, who probably would have expected to have settled the tie by then, but were pushed all the way to the deciding rubber by a Swiss side inspired by Finnish born Henri Laaksonen. The world number 344 pulled off two impressive five set wins in the weekend against Ruben Bemelmans and Steve Darcis but in the end the Belgians played their joker in the pack, David Goffin, who was far too superior to Adrien Bossel and booked his side’s place in the next round with a straight sets win.
Taking on the Belgians will be a Canada side that edged past Japan after Nishikori defeated Raonic in five sets in what was probably the best match of the weekend. Unfortunately for Nishikori, none of his teammates added to his two points and after Vasek Pospisil comfortably dispatched Go Soeda in three sets, the Vancouver crowd celebrate their qualification for the next round, whereas Japan will have to earn their ticket for next year’s edition in September’s World Group playoff.
