spanish team davis cupDespite the doubles match yet to be played, they lost against the Netherlands in the first round of the Group Stage this Wednesday. Czech Republic. After the first defeat Bernabe Zapata in your hand Tomas Machac, Alexander Davidovich He was also defeated in the second duel, in which the player from Malaga faced the first player of the Czech team. Jiri Lehecka.
Bernabé Zapata made his debut in defeat
Zapata Miralles blamed the pressure on the La Fonteta track, which had not yet warmed up for the premiere and had just over half a shot in the stands. Zapata, 26 years old, He lost his serve in the opening game and this continued throughout the match. He was filling his racket with nerves and mistakes.
Machac, ranked 119th in the ATP rankings, was much more solid, especially when he had to resort to second serve. The Czech player did not waste his advantage and took the first set in the 47th minute after an extreme return from his Valencia-born opponent.
The second set started with Zapata again. in tow. Although the Spanish player managed to resist the attacks of the Central European, who led 0-30 twice, he finally gave up in the seventh game (3-4). Machac remained strong until the end The Valencian player did not miss the opportunity to put the Czech Republic ahead with his last shot into the net.
One hour and 33 minutes was the time the 22-year-old Czech needed to make it 0-1 in favor of Jaroslav Navratil’s side.
Davidovich cannot beat Lehecka
A few minutes later, in just under two hours (one hour and 53 minutes), the world number 30 eliminated the top-seeded Spaniard in David Ferrer. Davidovich FokinaHe is the twenty-fifth player on the ATP list. Lehecka showed once again that he is a tennis player with whom the Spaniards can chokeAfter beating him on the London lawns of Queen’s this summer, he went 2-0 up against him.
On the fast road of La Fonteta, The 21-year-old Czech player showed his greatest efficiency in the serve. In fact, the Mlada Boleslav player closed both sets (7-6(5) and 7-5) with two aces.
Davidovich offered Very competitive and even great resistance in the first set. Encouraged by Fonteta, who showed more enthusiasm in the stands than in the first qualifying matches, the Malaga player landed several blows that encouraged the crowd and took the duel to a tiebreak; the last was the Spaniard’s right cross. was directed to the line. However, the Czech’s stronger serve and some erroneous serves by the Andalusian upset the balance.
In the second set, The weight of the tie was felt completely on us On Davidovich’s back. However, courage is one of the Spanish number one’s best talents this Group Stage and he was able to neutralize Lehecka’s attacking options by bursting towards goal.
The Spanish player had some good moments in tennis in the middle of the second set. Even though his opponent didn’t give him any more options, he came close to ‘breaking’ with a nice parallel backhand. The Czech had a clear and mature game plan. More calmly, he played the score in his favor and at 5-5, when another tiebreaker smelled from the stands, he made the final blows to break the erratic Davidovich’s serve.
Where are the classification options going?
Now the Spaniards have to beat Serbia on Friday. Novak Djokovic…an almost impossible task. The other long shot to have a chance of getting into the Malaga Finals would be to get a three-way win with the South Koreans and Czechs. To do this we need to start with: win doubles This afternoon he is measuring Davidovich-Granollers against Mensik-Pavlasek because they will count the number of matches and games won to break the tie.