Nadal grabs lead for Spain
In the first match between the US and Spain in the Davis Cup semifinals, world #1 Rafael Nadal gave the Spaniards the lead. American Sam Querrey gave the US something to hope for as he took the first set off of Nadal 7-6(5), but he couldn’t maintain that play (especially on clay). Nadal won the next three sets to win the match 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
If you look at the stats from the match, one particular stat jumps right off the page: unforced errors. Nadal had 35 errors while Querrey had 74! When you are playing Nadal on clay in front of his home crowd, you cannot expect to have that many errors and win this match. Yes, Querrey did have 18 more winners and 16 more aces than Nadal, but the errors more than made up for it.
I don’t think coach and captain Pat McEnroe will be upset at all with Querrey’s performance. It would have taken a herculean effort to beat Nadal under these circumstances, and Querrey didn’t play that badly. They do need Roddick to beat Ferrer in the second match though, because if he doesn’t they will be in big, big trouble.
The defending champion US squad is without regulars James Blake (exhaustion) and Bob Bryan (injury). Mardy Fish will team with Mike Bryan to face Verdasco/Lopez in the doubles match tomorrow.
The other semifinal is between Russia and Argentina and is being played in Buenos Aires. The two singles matches today will pit David Nalbandian (ARG) against Igor Andreev (RUS) and Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) against Nikolay Davydenko (RUS). Neither match has started as of yet.
