Today:
Czech Rep beat Austria 2-1
The Austrians beat the Croats yesterday in the evening.
I didn't go to see that match, I just know that the Czechs won both singles matches and then lost the doubles, but it didn't mean much to them anyway. They are through to the finals.
Bulgaria beat Croatia 2-1
In the first match Ivan Marinkov (
) lost to Mslav Hizak 4-6 4-6. It was a quite even match but the Croat played very well when it mattered.
In the second match Yordan Kanev beat Tomislav Hadzic quite comfortably, it looked as if they were warming up the whole match, played calmly and slowly
.
The doubles went easily to the Bulgarians and now they will play Turkey.
And now the match I spend most of my time on:
Great Britain vs Spain
In the first match David Brewer played the Spanish no2. I missed the first set as the match was supposed to start at 14.00 but for some reason it started at 13.00 :flamey:. Well anyway the spaniard won the first set 6-3 but Brewer was in full control in the secong and won it 6-0. Alex Bogdanovic and another English man (probably Brewer's coach) were cheering very loudly for him, the Spaniards were even louder... The Spanish player (I can't remember his name, I'll check tomorrow) took a 5-3 lead and had two matchpoints on Brewers serve but the Britain held, he later broke and made it 6-all. But the Spanish player was better in the end and won the match 8-6 in the third. By that time I think the Czechs finished boith of their matches
Next up was Alex Bogdanovic vs Nicolas Almagro. I've heard of Alex many times before (thanks to Marie) but the Spaniard really impressed me, he's only 342 in the world (ITF) but that's just probaly because he doesn't play many ITF tournaments because he's really really good.
Well anyway Nicolas (or Nico as all his teammates call him, who beat Kanev yesterday ) won the first set 6-3 (he started very well, quickly took a 3-0 lead). It then started raining pretty hard , the play wasn't suspended, the Spanish coach insisted on playing on, it didn't help Alex won the set 6-2. At 3-3 the play was finally suspended, when they came out again Nicolas Almagro was stronger. He won the match 6-3 2-6 6-4.
Now a bit about these two players:
Alex Bogdanovic was good. He is a left-hander, had a great serve, good groundstrokes. He didn't go to the net often but when he did he won most points. I liked his attitude on court too, no arguing with the umpire, didn't throw the racquet, was very calm etc..
Nicolas Almagro has a very aggressive game, is extremely good at the baseline, is fast and sharp. Yesterday I said that his game was similar to Canas but I changed my mind today- I'd say he's more interesting, he's on the attack more often...
)
