Stepanek, Nadal get wins
With Marat Safin giving the Russians a 1-0 lead, the pressure was square on the shoulders of Radek Stepanek to get the Czech Republic back in to the “tie.” Stepanek, who trains at the NBTA, was able to handle that pressure and got a straight set victory over Igor Andreev 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Now that the teams are tied, the doubles match tomorrow is going to be uber-important. Let’s take a look at the teams:
Nikolay Davydenko/Mikhail Youzhny vs. Lukas Dlouhy/Pavel Vizner - You have to give the edge here to Dlouhy/Vizner. These two guys are really doubles specialists, and up until this year they used to play doubles together. Looking at the doubles rankings, you can see what I am talking about. Vizner is the fifth ranked doubles player in the world and Dlouhy is #14.
While Davydenko and Youzhny are great singles players, they don’t play a whole lot of doubles. Davydenko has played two matches this year, and Youzhny 10. A win here for the Czech would be huge, considering this match is being played in Russia. I wonder if the Czech doubles team wins this match, will the Russians use Davydenko and/or Youzhny for the reverse singles on Sunday?
In Germany, Rafael Nadal got the first point on the board with a 7-6(5), 6-0, 6-3 over Nicolas Kiefer. This was expected. The best chance the Germans have at winning a point is Kohlschreiber beating Ferrer. And as a matter of fact, the two are playing now and Kohlschreiber is up a break in the first set. Let’s see if he can even this tie.
Stay tuned for more details throughout the day…
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