Russia Wins Davis Cup
Russia has won the 2006 Davis Cup by defeating Argentina in the reverse singles portion of the competition today in Moscow. Marat Safin redeemed himself for the loss he suffered Friday and won the Davis Cup title for Russia by defeating Jose Acasuso 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) on Sunday. The win gave Russia a 3-2 decision over Argentina for its second Davis Cup crown.
The Davis Cup started Friday with two singles matches which found the teams deadlocked at the end of the day in a 1-1 tie.
Russian Nikolay Davydenko defeated Juan Ignacio Chela 6-1, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in the first singles match Friday at Moscow’s Olympic arena, giving the home team a 1-0 advantage. Davydenko had previously lost all five of his prior matches against the Argentine. He won by dominating the first two sets, breaking Chela twice in the opening set and then two more times in the second to go up with a 2-0 lead which Chela was unable to overcome.
Then Argentine number one singles seed, David Nalbandian, overpowered Russia’s Marat Safin in the second match, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to tie the series. Safin blamed the indoor court surface, which he felt did not suit his style of play, for his weak performance. Safin fired 22 aces but also hit seven double faults and committed 57 unforced errors during the match.
On day two, the doubles competition, Marat Safin and Dmitry Tursunov teamed up to defeat Argentina’s David Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. The victory put Russia within one win of obtaining a second Davis Cup title.
Tursunov and Safin gave up only one point in their first-set service games and broke their struggling opponents in the fourth game to win the match. Nalbandian double-faulted to open the fourth game and lost at love which put Russia up 3-1 in the second set, giving them an advantage that was too much for the Argentines to overcome.
The Captain of the Russian team, Shamil Tarpishchev, had brought in Safin to replace Mikhail Youzhny for the doubles match. This was surprising, given Safin’s poor performance Friday in his singles match, which he had blamed on the surface of the court, but he overcame the issues to play successfully in Saturday’s match.
On the final day of competition, two-time Grand Slam champion Safin had 16 aces in his defeat of Acasuso. Admitting he had some difficult moments in the match, Safin called the victory his most important in the past two years.
David Nalbandian defeated Nikolay Davydenko 6-2, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the first reverse singles match of the day to tie the series at 2 all which put Safin in the hot seat. He responded well to the pressure as Russia won its first Davis Cup at home in Moscow. They won their previous Davis Cup championship in France four years ago.
