Spain's Pedro Martinez Portero in action during his doubles group stage match with Marcel Granollers-Pujol against Serbia in the Davis Cup Finals Group B match on Sept 13, 2022. (Reuters) |
No Carlos Alcaraz, no problem for Spain.
In front of a partisan home crowd at Valencia, Spain cruised
to a 3-0 win over Serbia in the Davis Cup Finals on Wednesday to move top of
their group.
The top-ranked Alcaraz had arrived in Valencia the previous
day but skipped the opening round, which was taking place only three days after
the Spanish teenager won the US Open. He did appear during the national
anthems, much to the crowd’s delight.
Sunday’s victory over Casper Ruud saw the 19-year-old Alcaraz
become the youngest man to lead the ATP computerized rankings since they began
in 1973.
But Albert Ramos Viñolas rallied to beat Laslo Đere 2-6, 7-6
(5), 7-5 in the opening rubber that lasted just under three hours. And Roberto
Bautista Agut prevailed 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) over Miomir Kecmanovic to secure
victory.
The crowd roared in delight and Bautista Agut sunk to his
knees after placing a backhand out of Kecmanovic’s reach after 2 hours, 15
minutes.
Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez beat Nikola Cacic and
Dusan Lajovic 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-2 in the doubles to complete the whitewash of
Serbia, who is without Novak Djokovic.
Granollers and Bautista Agut were part of Spain’s victorious
Davis Cup team in 2019.
Three other venues — Bologna in Italy, Hamburg, Germany and
Glasgow, Scotland — are hosting group-stage matches ahead of the single-venue
quarterfinals that will be played in the southern Spanish city of Malaga in
November.
In Group C in Hamburg, a home crowd helped propel Germany to
their first win over France since 1938.
Jan-Lennard Struff put Germany in front with a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
victory over Benjamin Bonzi, after the Frenchman failed to convert two match
points. But Adrian Mannarino evened the tie with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Oscar
Otte.
However, Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz maintained their
perfect Davis Cup record as a pairing by defeating Nicolas Mahut and Arthur
Rinderknech 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (1) to end a run of eight straight defeats for
Germany against France.
The hosts also won in Group A, in Bologna, as Italy beat
top-ranked Canada 3-0.
Lorenzo Mussetti eased past Borna Gojo 6-4, 6-2 before
Matteo Berrettini rallied to beat Borna Coric 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-1. Fabio Fognini
and Simone Bolelli also had to recover from a set down to see off Nikola Mektic
and Mate Pavic 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3).
Gojo, Mektic and Pavic were all part of the Croatia team
that lost to Russia in last year’s final. Croatia also won the Davis Cup in
2018.
Russia will not be able to defend their title from last year
after being banned from international team competitions because of the nation’s
invasion of Ukraine.
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