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Spain wins doubles tie, leads 2-1

— Photo: AP

JOY UNLIMITED: The Spanish players are all smiles after the pair of Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco won their doubles match in the Davis Cup final against Argentina on Saturday.

Mar Del Plata (Argentina): Spain’s Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco sent a chill through Argentina by winning the doubles to lead the Davis Cup tennis final 2-1.

Lopez and Verdasco prevailed as expected against David Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(5), 6-3 on Saturday, boosting Spain’s hopes of winning the final against all odds, especially as the home side’s injured leading player, Juan Martin del Potro, cannot play in the first reverse singles. He was replaced by Jose Acasuso.

“This was an important victory, it gives us life,” Spain captain Emilio Sanchez Vicario said. “We need one more game.”

Spain needs to win only one of the two reverse singles matches to clinch its third Davis Cup title, and first away from home.

Calleri and Nalbandian, playing their first Davis Cup doubles since the 2006 final, won the first set, but couldn’t hold back the veteran Spanish pair over three hours and 18 minutes. The Spaniards had 86 winners and only 30 unforced errors. The Argentines struggled on serve, being broken six times.

But they came through first, breaking Verdasco for 6-5 then erasing a 0-40 deficit for Nalbandian to hold and win the first set in just under an hour.

The rally pumped up the crowd, and the nearly 10,000 fans chanted constantly in between games. A small group of Spaniards tried to keep up, and at times also managed to make some noise.

Argentina saved three break points on Nalbandian’s serve in the eighth game of the second set to stay even at 4-4, but after Spain went up 6-5, Nalbandian could not hold on again. Calleri’s backhand volley flew long to even the set score.

In the third set, Nalbandian and Calleri were broken in successive games to trail 5-1, but Argentina came back in thrilling fashion to make it 5-5.

With the crowd cheering louder and louder, the Argentines seemed poised to continue their improbable comeback in the tie-breaker after jumping 4-0 up, but Spain won six straight points to win the tie-breaker 7-5 and hush the crowd.

The match was stopped for a few minutes during the tie-breaker as fans from both nations kept provoking each other and started making noise during the points.

In the final set, the Spaniards bolted to 5-2 and cruised to their fourth win in seven Davis Cup doubles, and by far their most important. — AP

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