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Clean sweep puts
Australia into semifinals Australia has sealed its place in the semifinals of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead over Belarus at the Kooyong Tennis Club in Melbourne. The Aussie combination of Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley , playing Davis Cup doubles together for only the second time, rallied from two sets to one down to beat Max Mirnyi and Vladimir Voltchkov 36 64 57 63 75 in three hours 53 minutes. “Sometimes these Davis Cup doubles are on a knife’s edge, especially when it’s a 1-1 scenario, it shows how pivotal they are, but this was a good effort, tough players those two guys,” said Australian captain John Fitzgerald. “You’ve got Max ranked three in the world and the other guy’s a hell of a hitter of the ball. These are not easy to win. That was a very good performance.”
Arthurs admitted that it was not one of his best performances. He said he was nervous and tight and “couldn’t release myself”. He thought if he dug deep and turned his mind back to the 2003 final, when he played so well, that things might change. “I think it was an omen when Paul hit me at the back of the head, because I did that to Todd Woodbridge in the middle of that match as well, so that’s what probably woke me up a little bit,” said Arthurs. Hanley held the team together for the better part of the match. He said he just didn’t want to let the team and Arthurs down. Hanley had said to himself before the match that he was going to give it everything he had. He had been very nervous in the first round, which was his first ever Davis Cup match and on that occasion it was Arthurs holding them together. “I was prepared to leave everything out on the court,” said Hanley.
Arthurs also said some of his nerves may have come from the fact that he doesn’t know how many more opportunities he’ll have in Davis Cup and when the last match might be. The 35-year-old is also a member of the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club and he wanted to put in an extra good showing. However, having said that, he has made it clear that he will be available for the semifinal tie in September. “I’m not going anywhere. If Fitzy wants me there, I’ll be there,” said Arthurs, who was playing his first event as a new father – his five week old daughter Amber was also in the stands. “I’ll have a few more weeks off and then I’ll get back on the tour before the French Open, setting myself up around the grass and then plan to have a full season on the hard courts after that ... hopefully the Davis Cup will be in my plans as well.”
Mirnyi meanwhile said they were aware of the fact that they could have won the doubles, which he saw as a positive for them. “One or two points here and there made the difference because when the score line ends up being the way it was here, the stats will probably tell you they maybe made one or two break points more than we did, or their first serve percentage was a tiny bit better than our, but other than that it was a pretty even match as you can see,” said Mirnyi. Australia
must wait for the result of the Croatia v Argentina quarterfinal before
knowing where they will be heading in September. A semifinal against Croatia
would be played on home soil, but if Argentina makes it through the Aussies
will be on the tango route to South America. Source: www.daviscup.org |