Germany wins thrilling roller coaster
In an emotional roller coaster lasting 3 hours, 38 minutes and five sets Tommy Haas and Alexander Waske beat Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl 46 75 62 26 64.
After the match point, Patrik Kühnen, the German captain, ran on the court, jumped around and hugged his players. It was his way of celebrating the sweet victory which gave Germany a 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group play-off tie against the Czech Republic.
“It was a terrific match. I am proud and happy that we pulled it out. I am exhausted and nothing is decided yet,” said Haas. Asked if he was tired because he had played five sets on Friday against Tomas Berdych he answered, “I didn’t think about it. I was pure adrenalin.” Haas believed after he and Waske won the second set that they had a pretty good chance to win the rubber.
“I cannot blame my players. Sometimes we were lucky, sometimes they. It was pretty equal. It was a high level match,” the Czech captain Cyril Suk said.
“I enjoyed playing. It was a great atmosphere. Unluckily we could not win. But I cannot remember that Leos and I played such a good match before,” Cermak said.
Cermak and Friedl played for the first time in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas. Haas and Waske were playing their third Davis Cup match. Each time they have had to fight five sets and at the end they have always succeeded.
In the first set Cermak and Friedl looked strong right from the start. In the very first game Waske lost his serve. At 4-3, Friedl gave away his service despite leading 40-0 but in the next game Waske was broken again. Cermak then held serve to decide the first set.
Both teams lost serve at the beginning of the second set. At 4-5 Waske and Haas had three set points but Cermak played excellently in this pressurised situation, hitting his first service extremely well. But at 5-6, the German team converted a break point to win the set 7-5.
It was now a typical Davis Cup rubber with a fantastic atmosphere and ups and downs on both sides. The Germans served better, the Czechs, who have won nine tournaments on clay, returned extremely well. When Haas and Waske broke Cermak’s serve to lead 4-2, the Czech team failed to win another point in the third set.
Leading two sets to one, it seemed Haas and Waske lost a bit of concentration. When they were on serve at 1-2 in the fourth set, Haas missed an easy volley at 40-15 and the German team went on to lose the game. A few minutes later Haas, the only player not having lost his serve up to that point, got broken. Cermak and Friedl converted their first set point at 5-2 levelled the match.
In the fifth set their were no breaks of service until the tenth game. Waske had stayed cool from 15-30 to put Germany 5-4 ahead. In the next game Frantisek Cermak had to face two match points at 15-40. On his second serve Waske hit a forehand cross court which Cermak could not reach to end the match
With the lead Germany has a good chance to advance to the Davis Cup World Group by BNP Paribas.
“It was my wish that on Saturday our team will be in front 2-1. I am very confident that either Nicolas Kiefer or Tommy Haas will win the third point,” said German capitain Patrik Kuhnen.
Tomorrow the two No. 1 players Tomas Berdych and Nicolas Kiefer will start at 12.30 local time. Then Tomas Zib and Tommy Haas will follow.