Swede Davis Cup triumph on cards

MILAN, DEC 5: Sweden were poised to win their seventh Davis Cup title yesterday after taking a 2-0 lead over Italy.Italy suffered a serio...

MILAN, DEC 5: Sweden were poised to win their seventh Davis Cup title yesterday after taking a 2-0 lead over Italy.

Italy suffered a serious setback when number one Andrea Gaudenzi pulled out of his match and the rest of the final with a shoulder injury.Gaudenzi retired hurt in the first match with the score at 6-6 in the fifth and final set of an epic opening clash with Magnus Norman which lasted four hours and 56 minutes.

Norman’s team mate Magnus Gustafsson then needed little over an hour and a half to demolish Davide Sanguinetti 6-1 6-4 6-0 before a subdued 11,000-strong crowd on the red clay court of Milan’s Forum di Assago.The two victories propelled defending champions Sweden to within sight of their seventh Davis Cup title and their third in the past five years.Their formidable doubles duo of Jonas Bjorkman and Niklas Kulti will face Diego Nargiso and Gaudenzi.

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Sanguinetti, who hardly figured in yesterday’s clash with Gustafsson, will stand in for Gaudenzi and is not a doubles specialist. He hasnever played Davis Cup doubles with Nargiso.

“I had always said Sweden were the favourites even if we had started off at 1-1 (after the first day) but now we’re at 2-0,” Italian Davis Cup captain Paolo Bertolucci told a news conference. “We will need not one but many miracles.”

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