The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Mathieu takes France ahead

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Saturday, Sep 25, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Mathieu takes France ahead

ALICANTE (SPAIN), SEPT. 24. Paul-Henri Mathieu rallied to upset world No. 6 Carlos Moya, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Friday to give France a 1-0 lead over Spain in their Davis Cup World Group tennis semifinal.

In the second singles match, Juan Carlos Ferrero faces Fabrice Santoro.

The winner of the best-of-five-match tie will take on the United States or Belarus in the December final.

Champion in 2000, Spain lost last year's final to Australia.

Moya was expected to make short work of the much lower ranked Frenchman, who changed the script by reeling off the last three games of the first set and breaking Moya's serve to open the second.

He lost the next two sets, but opened the fourth by breaking Moya's serve in the first game and again in the sixth.

In the deciding set, Moya looked like he might finally stop squandering opportunities to put the Frenchman away.

The Spaniard held serve and broke Mathieu's for a 2-0 lead, then reached game point that would have given him a 3-0 lead.

But Mathieu took him to break point three times before converting the fourth, and went on to claim five of the next six games.

The match lasted 4 hours, 29 minutes under a hot sun at a converted bull ring on red clay in this city on Spain's Mediterranean coast.

In doubles on Saturday, Tommy Robredo and Rafael Nadal were scheduled to play Santoro and Michael Llodra, winners of this year's Australian Open.

In reverse singles on Sunday, Moya starts off against Santoro and Ferrero closes against Mathieu.

Spain and France are two of the most successful teams in recent Davis Cup history. One or the other has been in every final since 1999.

France is playing without injured star Sebastien Grosjean.

Nicolas Escude, who anchored singles and doubles in its Davis Cup wins this year against Croatia and Switzerland, wasn't picked and, in a surprise move by captain Guy Forget, Arnaud Clement was benched in favour of Santoro.

Australia in lead

Lleyton Hewitt gave Australia a 2-0 lead in its Davis Cup World Group playoff with a record-setting 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 win over Mehdi Tahiri of Morocco on grass at Royal Kings Park.

Wayne Arthurs, playing in his first opening singles match in more than two years, earlier gave Australia a 1-0 lead with a 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-3 win over Mounir El Aarej.

The win was Hewitt's 25th Davis Cup singles victory, an Australian record in just his sixth year of Davis Cup play. Australia has played Davis Cup for 99 years.

The results: At Alicante: France 1, Spain 0 (Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) bt Carlos Moya (Esp) 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3).

World Group playoff: At Rijeka (Croatia): Croatia 1, Belgium 0 (Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) bt Gilles Elseneer (Bel) 7-6(6), 7-5, 6-4.

At Melbourne: Australia 2, Morocco 0 (Wayne Arthurs (Aus) bt Mounir El Aarej (Mor) 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-3; Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) bt Mehdi Tahiri (Mor) 6-0, 6-2, 6-2.

At Bratislava (Slovakia): Slovakia 1, Germany 1 (Dominik Hrbaty (Slo) bt Florian Mayer (Ger) 6-3, 6-1, 6-3; Tommy Haas (Ger) bt Karol Beck (Slo) 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.

At Bucharest: Romania 2, Canada 0 (Andrei Pavel (Rom) bt Simon Larose (Can) 7-5, 6-3, 6-2;

Victor Hanescu (Rom) bt Frank Dancevic (Can) 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

At Moscow: Russia 2, Thailand 0 (Igor Andreev (Rus) def. Paradorn Srichaphan (Thai) 7-5, 6-2, 6-4; Marat Safin (Rus) bt Danai Udomchoke (Thai) 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.

Asia/Oceania Group One (third-round playoff): New Zealand 1, Pakistan 1 (Mark Neilsen (NZ) bt Aqueel Khan (Pak) 6-0, 6-2, 6-2; Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) bt Simon Rea (NZ) 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3.

Euro/Africa Group One playoff: South Africa 2, Greece 0 (Wayne Ferreira (SA) bt Vasilis Mazarakis (Gre) 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2; Wesley Moodie (SA) bt Konstantinos Economidis (Gre) 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). — AP

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