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Photographer: Sergio Carmona
Date: 18 Sep 2009

Photographer: Sergio Carmona
Date: 18 Sep 2009

Photographer: Sergio Carmona
Date: 18 Sep 2009

18 Sep 2009 - Polaris World La Torre Golf Resort, Murcia - Chris Bowers - ESP v ISR

Spain puts one foot in the final

For the fifth time in ten years, the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas final looks likely to feature Spain, as the defending champions opened up a 2-0 lead over Israel on the first day of the semifinal in the region of Murcia.

On a beautifully sunny and calm day, the hosts opened up their expected 1-0 lead when David Ferrer beat Harel Levy 61 64 63. And then Juan Carlos Ferrero won a high quality second singles, beating Dudi Sela 64 62 60. Although Israel is a slight favourite for the doubles, it’s hard to see the hosts losing both the final day’s singles.

In many ways it’s such a shame the record books record scores rather than quality of play. The score by which Ferrero beat Sela was brutal on the Israeli, yet the first set and a half were packed with high quality tennis, and only when Ferrero broke to lead 3-2 in the second did he break Sela’s resistance.

The epic opening game lasted 16 minutes

Some of the points had the 10,000-spectator crowd purring with admiration. The opening game lasted 16 minutes and had seven break points for Ferrero. He eventually broke in the fifth, but Sela had a break point in the tenth which would have seen him level the first set at 5-5 if he had only given his down-the-line backhand a little more height.

The greatest entertainment came in the fourth game of the second set. Five times Sela had a break point that would have given him a 3-1 lead. Five times Ferrero saved it, reproducing some of his best claycourt tennis – it cast the mind back to the all-conquering early years of his career which culminated in his French Open title of 2003. On one point he was driven ridiculously wide by Sela, only to produce a phenomenal heavily side-spun dropshot that landed just outside the Israeli’s reach.

Not only did Ferrero hold for 2-2, but on the first point of the next game Sela wasted an opportunity by hitting the ball at Ferrero, the Spaniard pulling off a reflex volley into the open court. From that point the air went out of Sela, he dropped his serve, and never won another game, Ferrero reeling off 11 games on the run to secure his victory.

Sela recognised that those two games were crucial. “I was really tired after the fourth game, and he played a good game at 2-2, he broke my serve and I think that changed everything. He played much better then, he started moving me around, I was tired, and he took control of the match.”

Ferrero was happy to acknowledge the quality of the challenge he faced: “He surprised me a little bit, he was so good from the baseline, he was solid with his backhand, hardly making any mistakes, but by the end I felt good physically and was playing so much better than at the beginning.”

Levy lacked killer punch against Ferrer

Ferrer’s earlier win over Levy had all the feel of a warm-up act. Conceding 121 ranking places, the 31-year-old Levy came out with a more aggressive game than usual, hitting through his backhand rather than relying on his trusted slice, and he opened up several opportunities. But with Ferrer scurrying for every ball, Levy frequently couldn’t land the killer punch.

The Israeli took a 3-1 lead in the second set, but it was always asking a lot for him to sustain it against a natural claycourter, and Ferrer eventually ground him down, and emerged victorious in an hour and 53 minutes.

No changes are expected for Saturday’s doubles, in which Israel’s experienced pairing of Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich take on Spain’s Feliciano Lopez and Tommy Robredo.

Related Links on other websites
> Información en español - RFET
> Information in Hebrew - ITA

Related Links on Daviscup.com
> Tie Information
> Scorecards and statistics from the tie
> Audio interviews from the tie
> It's David vs Goliath - 'and we know who won that one!'

Related Audio

Interview with David Ferrer (ESP) - day 1

Interview with Harel Levy (ISR) - day 1

Interview with Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) - day 1

Interview with captain Eyal Ran (ISR) - day 1

Interview with Dudi Sela (ISR) - day 1

Interview with captain Albert Costa (ESP) - day 1

If you cannot hear the audio, then please update your media player by following one of the links above.

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