Spain wins Davis Cup again
Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer completed Spain’s Davis Cup final whitewash over the Czech Republic in Barcelona.
Defending champions Spain had sealed their fourth Davis Cup title on Saturday when the doubles pair of Fernando Verdasco demolished their Czech opponents to give the hosts an unassailable 3-0 lead.
And world number two Nadal and Ferrer completed the job on Sunday by beating Jan Hajek and Lukas Dlouhy respectively for a final 5-0 scoreline for the hosts.
Nadal downed Jan Hajek 6-3 6-4 while Ferrer cruised to a 6-4 6-2 victory over Dlouhy.
Spain also won the Davis Cup in 2000, 2004 and 2008, and are the first country to successfully defend the title since Sweden in 1998.
“I’m so happy, we did did an unbelieveable job the whole year,” Spanish team captain Albert Costa, who as a player helped Spain to their first ever Davis Cup title in 2000, told reporters.
“The crowd has been really unbelieveable this weekend. We finished yesterday but they were still here supporting us here today,” he said. “It was an incredible moment to return as captain after winning here nine years ago.”
Czech captain Jaroslav Navaratil paid tribute to his team.
“They fought unbelievable,” he said. “We didn’t have too much luck this weekend, we lost 0-5. We have to accept it, we were up against the best team in the world.”
On Saturday, Verdasco and Lopez overwhelmed an exhausted Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych — who had lost both Friday’s opening singles — 7-6 7-5 6-2 — in what was the Czech pair’s first ever Davis Cup defeat in six matches.
In Friday’s opening singles, Nadal, who had limped out of last week’s ATP World Tour finals in London without a single win, cruised past Berdych 7-5 6-0 6-2.
Then Ferrer, ranked 18 in the world, came back from two sets down to beat Stepanek 1-6 2-6 6-4 6-4, 8-6 in an epic match that lasted four hours and 17 minutes.
The Czechs won their only Davis Cup title as Czechoslovakia with Ivan Lendl in their squad in 1980.
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