Mister Davis Cup at service once again

After Paes and Bhupathi defeated Daniel Willman and James Shortall 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in a rain-affected doubles tie, Paes gave India an unassailable 3-1 lead with a 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 2-6, 6-1 victory over Kiwi number one Mark Nielson.

Later, in an inconsequential best-of-three fifth rubber, India’s Harsh Mankad beat James Shortall 7-5, 6-3. For Paes it was yet another Davis Cup tie. But Neilsen was not ready to give up and punished three second serves from Paes to force a duece. That was it as Paes settled the tie with two big serves. In the third game of the second set, Neilsen, facing three break points, tried to charge to the net and made volleying errors to lose serve.

He again lost serve in the fifth and ninth game but there was enough indication of what was in store for Paes as he won the sixth game before conceding the set 3-6. Neilsen began to come forward more often and after dropping serve in the second game of the third set he broke back immediately to level the scores 2-2.Then came the rain and the Kiwi regrouped and came back to win the third and fourth sets 6-4, 6-2 to push the match into the decider. But despite Paes’ overworked legs, the amazing Indian ran away to a 5-0 lead in the decider to wrap up the tie with 6-1 win.

Sweden casualty in russian roulette

Russia romped into the Davis Cup semi-finals on Saturday, securing a winning 4-1 lead over seven-times champions Sweden. For the hosts Andrei Stoliarov won the crucial first reverse singles when Sweden’s Andreas Vinciguerra retired after trailing 4-6, 2-5. Sweden won the inconseqential last rubber when Thomas Johansson beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4. Earlier in the doubles Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin struck back from two sets to one down to beat Jonas Bjorkman and Thomas Johansson 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3.

In another quarter-final Jiri Novak blasted past an injured Sebastien Grosjean 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 to put the Czeck Republic draw level 2-2 against France. In Houston, the US recovered from Pete Sampras’ shock defeat on Friday to take a 2-1 lead over Spain when Todd Martin and James Blake beat Juan Balcells and Alberto Martin 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. In the fourth quarter-final at Buenos Aires, Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic and Ivan Ljubicic recovered to beat Guillermo Canas and Lucas Arnold 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 8-6 in the doubles and reduce Argentina’s lead to 2-1. The Argentines, having won both Friday’s singles, looked set to cruise into the semifinals when Canas and Arnold took the first two sets at the Buenos Aires Lawen Tennis Club and seemed to be on course to settle the tie with a day to spare.