Spanish Armada looks to sail Down Under

Albert Costa drew first blood for Spain, defeating Todd Martin in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, at the seaside resort town Santander.

Spain’s top player Corretja followed suit later, coming back to beat Gambill, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, after dropping the first set on the home clay.

Spain can clinch their third overall final appearance — after 1965 and 1967 — on Saturday when Corretja and Juan Balcells are expected to take on Vince Spadea and Chris Woodruff in the doubles.

The US team, holders of a record 31 Davis Cup titles, has seen better days, playing without injured top stars Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

The winners of the best-of-five tie will face Australia in December’s final.

Costa overcame Martin in an error-strewn match. Martin, who has two clay court titles to his credit and is usually a solid performer on the surface, had been the main hope for the Americans.

But he failed to take advantage of the countless chances that came his way and Costa, without ever finding his best form, was able to take the match in two hours eight minutes.

Martin, in fact, started the stronger in the opening match on the red clay of Santander, as he served to love and then had Costa at 0-40 in his opening service game.

The Spaniard saved all three break-points, however, and came at Martin strongly in game three, clinching a 2-1 lead with a hopeful lob that his opponent misjudged totally.

Costa lost at least two points on each of his service games in the opening set but Martin was unable to break back, even when taking him once again to 0-40 in the eighth game.

Costa duly served out the first set but Martin launched a comeback in the second, again holding his opening game to love and then breaking to 30 as the Spaniard put a simple forehand long.

The American failed to hold his next service, however, as he put a tired forehand long at 30-40 and Costa came back relentlessly, holding in game four and breaking again in the next for 3-2 thanks to a double fault from Martin.

Martin gave his non-playing captain John McEnroe hope by breaking back immediately but Costa was once again equal to the challenge, coming back to take a 4-3 lead with another lob that forced another mistake.

Costa served out for the set and although Martin stayed with him to 4-4 in the third there was never much doubt about where the match was going.

Costa broke for the fifth time in the match with a superb pass and then served out to love, scampering across the court with his arms outstretched to celebrate a vital point won against the American Number One.

Following the decision of US captain John McEnroe not to play doubles, for what could prove to be the crucial match of this rubber.

Corretja and Balcells have a 1-1 Davis Cup doubles record together, with both matches taking place this year.

They defeated italy in the first round only to lose to Russian pairing of Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin in the quarter-finals, which the Spanish won 4-1.

Sunday’s reverse singles, will be Corretja versus Martin, followed by Costa versus Gambill.

This will be the fifth meeting between Corretja and Martin with the series tied 2-2.

However, Corretja defeated Martin in their only previous meeting on clay in the second round of Hamburg this year 6-3, 6-2.

Costa has a 2-0 win-loss record against gambill with both matches won in straight sets on hard court at the Canadian Open in 1998 and Sydney last year.

The winner here will play Australia, who last weekend demolished Brazil 5-0 in their semifinal in Brisbane, for the December 8-10 final. If Spain win here they will host the event, but should the US win they will be travelling to Melbourne.