Led by former world number one Rafael Nadal, defending Champions Spain took their fourth Davis Cup title with a 5-0 victory over the Czech Republic on indoor clay in Palua Sant Jodi in Barcelona.
Sweden was the last nation to successfully defend the title in 1998.
The partnership of Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez clinched the win by taking the decisive doubles rubber on the second day after Nadal and David Ferrer were both victorious in the first day’s singles rubbers.
Back on his favourite surface, Australian Open and Olympic Champion Nadal kicked off the tie with a 7-5 6-0 6-2 win over Tomas Berdych. The tall Czech put the world number two under pressure in an epic first set, lasting over an hour, but failed to capitalise on a love-thirty advantage with Nadal serving at 4-5. From there on the Spaniard dominated winning 13 consecutive games as Berdych’s challenge crumbled.
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Nadal now leads Berdych 6-3 in career meetings, after Berdych had won 3 of their first 4 encounters.
As well as giving the home nation the perfect start; the win snapped a four match losing streak for Nadal and gave him a 400th career singles victory. Having only played 491 matches, the 23 year-old is the fastest man ever to achieve this feat.
Nadal has an impressive 14-1 singles record in Davis Cup and has not lost since since making his debut against Jiri Novak in February 2004.
It was a third Davis Cup final for the Czech team who knew that a loss for Radek Stepanek against David Ferrer in the second rubber would leave them with a mountain to climb heading into day two.
Stepanek and Ferrer had split their previous six matches with three having gone the full distance to five sets.
Serving and volleying with authority, World number 12 Stepanek raced into a two set lead. Former world number 4 Ferrer proved his tenacity and determination to fight back in the third set. With Nadal leading the Spanish support from the bench, Ferrer displayed his characteristic grit to run down numerous Stepanek drop shots and completed a stirring comeback winning 1-6 2-6 6-4 6-4 8-6.
Ferrer has an 11-3 singles record in the competition and beat Andy Roddick 7-6(7-5) 2-6 1-6 6-4 8-6 in the 2008 semi-final in Madrid.
The only time a Davis Cup final had been won from 0-2 down was when Australia recovered to defeat the USA 3-2 in 1939. The Czech team needed a stellar doubles performance from Berdych and Stepanek against the left handed combination of Lopez and Verdasco if they were to replicate this feat.
The first set was a tight affair, after the Czech team recovered from an early service break, and was decided by a tie-break. The Spaniards led 6-3 with three set points before Berdych and Stepanek recovered impressively and held a set point with Berdych serving at 7-6. The 24 year-old chose to stay back on his first serve and Verdasco and Lopez seized the initiative, reeling off the last three points to claim the lead.
The second set was equally tight and was decided by one break of the Berdych serve in the eleventh game, before the Spaniards roared away with two breaks in the third set to win 7-6(9-7)7-5 6-2 and seal the Spanish victory.
Verdasco and Lopez also won the doubles tie in the 2008 final and contributed to this year’s quarter final win over Germany with a doubles win.
With the final result decided, the third day’s matches became dead rubbers with Nadal beating Jan Hajek 6-3 6-4 and Ferrer defeating reigning French and US Open Doubles Champion Lukas Dlouhy 6-4 6-2.
Spain, who played all their 2009 matches at home, are now unbeaten in 18 home ties and have won their last 20 ties played on clay. They will be aiming for a hat trick of titles in 2010. The last nation to achieve this was the USA who won a record five consecutive titles from 1968 to 1972.
The last time the Spaniards lost at home was in the first round of the 1999 World Group when Gustavo Kuerten led Brazil to a 3-2 win in Lerida.
Only 12 nations have won the Davis Cup since it began in 1900.
Most Davis Cup titles
| Country |
Titles |
| USA |
32 |
| Australia |
28 |
| France |
9 |
| Great Britain |
9 |
| Sweden |
7 |
| Spain |
4 |
| Germany |
3 |
| Russia |
2 |
| Croatia |
1 |
| Czech Republic |
1 |
| Italy |
1 |
| South Africa |
1 |
Amelie Mauresmo announces retirement
One of the most successful players of the last decade, former Wimbledon Champion Amelie Mauresmo, announced her retirement from the sport last week at the age of 30.
Mauresmo enjoyed an excellent junior career including the 1996 Junior Wimbledon title and was crowned ITF Junior World Champion the same year. She burst onto the world scene aged 19 in 1999 by upsetting world number one Lindsay Davenport to reach the Australian Open final.
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Unseeded and ranked 29, Mauresmo was one of the lowest ever ranked Australian Open finalists. She had saved a match point in her opening match against Corina Morariu.
Over the following six years the popular Frenchwoman became a fixture in the top ten, reaching four Grand Slam semi-finals and nine quarter finals as well as a number of titles on the WTA tour.
Mauresmo played 21 Fed Cup ties and finished with a 30-9 singles record. In 2003 she contributed two singles wins in the final as France took the title.
She first claimed the number one ranking on 13th September 2004, becoming the first French player male or female to achieve this. In total she spent 39 weeks in the top spot – ninth on the all time list. She achieved a breakthrough at the end of 2005 claiming the WTA Championships title with an epic three hour win over compatriot Mary Pierce, having been a finalist at the same event two years earlier.
Mauresmo won 25 WTA singles titles during a career and took an Olympic silver medal in Athens in 2004.
Boosted by this success Mauresmo had the best year of her career in 2006 winning both the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles to achieve her dream of becoming a Grand Slam Champion. She was denied a moment of triumph in Melbourne when Justine Henin retired trailing 6-1 2-0 but proved any doubters wrong over five months later by defeating the Belgian 2-6 6-3 6-4 to hold aloft the Venus Rosewater dish on Centre Court.
Mauresmo was the first Frenchwoman to win the Wimbledon singles title since Suzanne Lenglen claimed the last of her six titles in 1925.
The pressure from the French Open crowd at Roland Garros always proved too heavy a burden on Mauresmo. Her best performances on the clay in Paris were quarter final performances in 2003 and 2004 in fifteen career appearances.
In an era of power hitting from the baseline Mauresmo’s single handed backhand stood out – along with Henin – and her court craft, guile and skill at the net made her a favourite for traditionalists and fans of the all court game.
Fittingly she took the last singles title of her career at the Paris Indoors in February this year with wins over Jelena Jankovic and Elena Dementieva.
Junior Tennis
There was significant British success at the Grade 1 Eddie Herr International Championships in Florida as a number of juniors excelled in different age groups.
Luke Bambridge impressively won both the 14U singles and doubles titles and Katy Dunne reached the Girls 14U singles final.
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In the 18U Boys singles Jack Carpenter made a terrific run through to the semi-finals,
beating the top seeded Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2 6-4 in the second round and the American fifth seed Mitchell Frank 5-7 7-5 6-3 in the quarter-finals. Oliver Golding also reached the quarter-finals beating the 10th seed en route.
US Open Junior Champion Heather Watson was the top seed in the 18U Girls Singles but fell in two tight sets to 13th seed Polina Leykina in the third round. The 17 year-old reached the doubles quarter finals with her Polish partner Magda Linette.
Eyes now turn to the hugely prestigious Orange Dunlop Bowl Championships in Florida which is underway for the world’s top juniors.
Read the British players latest blogs from the Orange Bowl in our Guest Blogger area.
ITF / Challenger circuit
Naomi Broady had a terrific week at the $10k ITF tournament in La Habana, Cuba. The top seeded 19 year-old did not concede a set and only dropped 17 games en route to the title, comfortably beating Russian Yana Koroleva in the final.
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Broady has won three career ITF singles titles – all coming this year.
There was also British doubles success as Alex Slabinsky reached the doubles final at the $10k event in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic with his Israeli partner Amir Weintraub. James Feaver progressed to the doubles final with his Argentinean partner Juan-Pablo Amado at the $10k tournament in Arequipa, Peru.
Senior Tour - AEGON Masters
Large crowds at the Albert Hall were treated to an exciting week’s tennis as the ATP Champions tour culminated with the AEGON Masters.
In a thrilling final full of serve and volley skill between two former world number ones, Pat Rafter edged out Stefan Edberg 6-7(5-7)6-4 11-9 (match tie-break) to take the title. 36 year-old Rafter was making his debut in the tournament.
Rafter twice won the US Open in 1997 and 1998 and was twice a finalist at Wimbledon, losing to Sampras in 2000 and famously going down 3-6 6-3 3-6 6-2 7-9 to Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.
Rafter is the only player male or female to have held the world number one ranking for only one week. He achieved this feat on July 26th 1999.
Rafter and Ivanisevic faced each other again last week in the round robin stages but hopes of another epic battle were dashed when Ivanisevic was forced to retire leading 5-3 in the first set.
43 year-old Edberg won his three round robin matches without dropping a set and stretched Rafter to the limit in the final. Edberg had won all three tour matches between the pair in 1995.
Edberg finished 1990 and 1991 with the year-end number one ranking, and spent a total of 72 weeks in the top spot during his career. He won six Grand Slam titles – two Australian Open titles, two Wimbledon titles and two US Open titles. In addition in 1989 he fell to Michael Chang in a five set French Open final.
Edberg achieved a junior calendar Grand Slam in 1983 winning all four major junior singles titles.
Pat Cash, Cedric Pioline, Greg Rusedski, Mark Philippoussis and Younes El Aynaoui made up the rest of the singles field.
Movers and Shakers
There are very few changes in this week’s rankings. James Ward has lost some 2008 points meaning Dan Evans becomes British Number 3.
ATP year-end top 10
- 1. Roger Federer (SUI)
- 2. Rafael Nadal (ESP)
- 3. Novak Djokovic (SER)
- 4. Andy Murray (GB)
- 5. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)
- 6. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
- 7. Andy Roddick (US)
- 8. Robin Soderling (SWE)
- 9. Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
- 10. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (FRA)
Top Brits
- 4. Andy Murray
- 164. Alex Bogdanovic
- 261. Dan Evans
- 273. James Ward
- 310. Joshua Goodall
WTA year-end top 10
- 1. Serena Williams (US)
- 2. Dinara Safina (RUS)
- 3. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
- 4. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
- 5. Elena Dementieva (RUS)
- 6. Venus Williams (US)
- 7. Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
- 8. Jelena Jankovic (SER)
- 9. Vera Zvonareva (RUS)
- 10. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)
Top Brits
- 85. Elena Baltacha
- 89. Katie O’Brien
- 99. Anne Keothavong
- 189. Mel South
- 203. Naomi Cavaday
Next week's column will be profiling the WTA Players of the Year.