 Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 19 Sep 2009 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 19 Sep 2009 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 19 Sep 2009 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 19 Sep 2009 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 19 Sep 2009 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 19 Sep 2009 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 20 Sep 2009 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 20 Sep 2009 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 20 Sep 2009 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 20 Sep 2009 |
|
| 19 Sep 2009 - Sportska Dvorana 'Zatika', Porec - Craig Gabriel - CRO v CZE | |
| Radek and Tomas 'Czech' into final |
The Zatika Arena was reminiscent of a heavy metal rock concert. The cheering, chanting, and jumping up and down courtside would have been more at home at a Pearl Jam performance. An entire section of men with all body shapes removed their shirts and started to swing them in the air while singing. They were celebrating. Their nation, Czech Republic, had just defeated Croatia to qualify for the final of the 2009 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas.
The Czechs became the first of the finalists after Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek accounted for Marin Cilic and Lovro Zovko. Berdych and Stepanek have achieved an honour that their nation has enjoyed just twice before in the 76 years the Czechs have been part of Davis Cup. In 1975, Czechoslovakia was runner-up to Sweden and then in 1980, led by Ivan Lendl, they beat Italy to win the title.
Berdych and Stepanek showed no ill effects of their long five set matches in the singles on the opening day. They came in as the substitutes for US Open doubles champion Lukas Dlouhy and Jan Hernych, and defeated Marin Cilic, who took the place of Roko Karanusic, and Lovro Zovko 61 63 64 in 2hr 16min.
Czechs eye Davis Cup final
“The feeling doesn’t change, we won and we are very happy,” said Berdych. “To finish it on Saturday and have the three points, that’s the most important thing and to go to the finals, it’s going to be one of my best memories.”
It was something that Stepanek concurred with and said: “To go through emotions bigger than Davis Cup, I don’t think you could. We had two unbelievable matches yesterday and we recovered and played a great doubles match today. I would say we are happy to be in the final but we are not satisfied.”
The Czechs came out with all guns blazing in the doubles. Berdych and Stepanek wasted no time in breaking the Croats – in fact they broke serve three times in the set to close things out. Zovko was the weak link of the Croat team as he was broken again in the fourth game of the second set.
Berdych continued to produce the goods with his serve just as he had done the day before in the singles. He was unhindered when he served for the second set and closed it out comfortably.
Darkness interrupts third set
At the start of the third set play was interrupted for 15 minutes when a bank of lights in the arena went out. As one person commented: “Play is suspended due to darkness.” That is something you would normally hear at Wimbledon rather than at in indoor venue. The lighting returned and Berdych and Stepanek kept things going at a steady pace.
Both teams were holding serve but in the vital seventh game Cilic put a smash into the net while break point down. That was the advantage the visitors needed and they were next to flawless after that.
They held two match points on Cilic’s serve which the Croats bravely saved. However, a game later with Berdych serving, the Czechs clinched it on match point four when Stepanek, who was at the net, received a sitter of a smash which was put away. He later said as soon as he hit the ball he knew the tie was theirs.
Berdych slowly turned; the smile on his face was from ear to ear as Stepanek threw his arms up and screamed. The stadium erupted and the celebrations had begun.
“The Czech team played extremely well and didn’t give us too many chances to come back in the match when they had the lead,” said Cilic. “They deserved their win, they played on a high level. We had some chances in the last two sets but they didn’t give us any openings and it was tough for us to get into a good position.”
Related Links on other websites
> Information from Croatia
> Information in Czech - CTA
Related Links on Daviscup.com
> Tie Information
> Scorecards and statistics from the tie
> Audio interviews from the tie
> Czech marathon men prevail
> Croatia goes for hat trick
Related Audio
 Interview with Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek (CZE) - day 2
Interview with Czech captain Jaroslav Navratil - day 2
Interview with Croatian captain Goran Prpic - day 2
Interview with Lovro Zovko and Marin Cilic (CRO) - day 2
 
If you cannot hear the audio, then please update your media player by following one of the links above.
|
Español
