ALMATY, Kazakhstan: Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic put the defending champions into the Davis Cup semi-finals with a tough win over Kazakhstan’s Evgeny Korolev at Astana yesterday.
Rosol, who is 63rd in the ATP rankings, won 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 in his first ever head-to-head meeting with the 25-year-old Korolev to give his team an unassailable 3-1 lead in the tie.
“It was a really difficult win as Evgeny showed really classy tennis today and kept me under pressure throughout the match,” Rosol said.
“Luckily I managed to resist the pressure and won. It’s our joint win, the entire team’s result.”
Both players started cautiously, trying to avoid unnecessary risks, before Rosol snatched the opening set tie-break.
In the second set Korolev, who is 187th in the world, broke in the sixth game but Rosol broke back in the ninth to set up another tiebreak, which Korolev won to level at one set all.
The third set was almost a carbon copy of the second as Korolev grabbed the lead in the fifth game, while Rosol levelled in the 10th. But this time the 27-year-old Czech was more precise in the tiebreak to clinch a 2-1 lead.
In the fourth Rosol underlined his clay supremacy, breaking his rival’s serve twice to win the set, the match and a place in the semi-finals for his team.
On Friday Rosol and Jan Hajek gave Czech Republic a commanding 2-0 lead beating Andrey Golubev 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 and Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 respectively.
On Saturday Kazakhstan’s pair of Golubev and Yuriy Schukin reduced the arrears with a straight-set win 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 over the Czech pair Hajek and Radek Stepanek.
In Boise Idaho, Serbia took a major step towards reaching the semi-finals by outlasting the host USA in a marathon five-set victory in yesterday’s doubles competition of their Davis Cup tie.
Ilija Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic shocked the top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/1), 5-7, 4-6, 15-13 to give Serbia a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five tie heading into a pair of today’s reverse singles matches. World No. 1 and reigning Aussie Open champ Novak Djokovic can send Serbia into the semis with a win Sunday over American Sam Querrey, who is ranked 20th in the world.
The 25-year-old Djokovic has captured two ATP Tour titles in 2013, winning 19 singles matches and losing just two. Earlier this year he claimed his sixth grand slam title by beating Andy Murray in the final of the Australian Open. Querrey has a 13-7 record this year with no titles.
Djokovic has won five of six careers meetings against Querrey, including a 6-0, 7-6 (8/6) win last month in Indian Wells, California.
Serbia defeated the 32-time titlist Americans 3-2 in Belgrade in an opening-round tie three years ago in their lone previous Davis Cup encounter.
Meanwhile, recalled wild child Bernard Tomic was the hero for Australia and Tatsuma Ito sealed a pulsating tie for Japan as both countries reached the Davis Cup World Group play-offs yesterday.
Tomic, back in the fold after being dropped for disciplinary reasons, beat Denis Istomin to give Australia an unassailable 3-1 lead in their Asia/Oceania Group I tie with Uzbekistan, after also winning his first singles match on Friday.
In Tokyo, 24-year-old Ito held his nerve to defeat South Korea’s Cho Min-Hyeok 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in the decisive match, after rookie Lim Yong-Kyu upset Japan’s Go Soeda to leave the fixture poised at 2-2. Australia and Japan now go through to the World Group play-offs in September where they will try to seal a spot in the global team competition’s top tier next season.
Meanwhile, France levelled their Davis Cup World Group quarter-final tie against Argentina yesterday after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga dismantled Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in 1hr 42mins to force a deciding rubber.
The French number one also won his opening singles’ match on Friday and a place in the semi-finals will now be decided in the final match between world number 71 Carlos Berlocq and 13th ranked Frenchman Gilles Simon.
David Nalbandian and Horacio Zeballos came from behind to win Saturday’s doubles.Agencies
