David Nalbandian won his delayed singles match and then teamed up with Mariano Puerta to win the doubles as Argentina took a 2-1 lead over Australia in their Davis Cup quarter-final on Saturday.
Nalbandian beat Wayne Arthurs 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 in the second singles rubber before teaming up with Puerta to defeat Lleyton Hewitt and Arthurs 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 on grass at Sydney's Olympic tennis centre.
Hewitt had given Australia the perfect start with his 7-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 victory over Guillermo Coria in Friday's first singles but Saturday's results left the South Americans in control of the tie, needing to win just one of Sunday's two reverse singles to join either Slovakia or the Netherlands in the semi-finals.
"It was amazing, two points in one day, that was perfect for the team," a jubilant Nalbandian told a news conference.
"We came here to win three points and we have two so we just need one more. It's going to be tough but we're leading so we don't have any pressure.
"I'm very confident we can win and it's going to be incredible." Australia's non-playing captain John Fitzgerald admitted his team faced a massive challenge winning the tie but said he was still confident they could pull it off.
"We're not finished yet," Fitzgerald said.
"Obviously we were hoping to be leading after the second day but that's not to be so we have to regroup and get ourselves in the best shape we can for tomorrow."
Nalbandian needed just 28 minutes to level the tie at 1-1 after resuming his match against Arthurs. The rubber had been abandoned overnight at the end of the third set because of rain.
Saturday's fourth set was all one-way traffic with Nalbandian twice breaking Arthurs' serve to race through the set and conserve his energy for the doubles.
Nalbandian made a slow start in the doubles, dropping his opening service game, but the Australians failed to capitalise on their early advantage with Hewitt losing his serve after a series of unforced errors by Arthurs at the net.
The Argentines directed most of their attacks at Arthurs while the Australians struggled to make any inroads against the two South Americans with Puerta, runner-up at this year's French Open, winning every point on serve in the opening set.
The Australians led 5-3 in the tiebreak but Argentina grabbed the set when Hewitt netted a forehand return.
| |||||||||||
The third set was also decided by a single service break, on Arthurs' serve in the eighth game with Hewitt making the fatal error this time, allowing Nalbandian to serve out victory.
"In doubles there's only a few points here and there that can change the outcome of the whole match but they played very, very well," Hewitt said.
"We felt like the better team out there in the first set but things didn't quite go our way in the tiebreaker and we didn't take our chances."
Hewitt faces Nalbandian in Sunday's first reverse singles match, needing to win to keep the tie alive before Arthurs meets Coria in the concluding reverse doubles match. "It hasn't been a great day for me but tomorrow's a new day," Arthurs said. "The momentum has obviously shifted to them today but if Lleyton wins that first match tomorrow the momentum will shift back to us so it's going to be a big day."
© 2024 Rediff.com -