Davis Cup: Nerves of steel! Nadal brings Spain to the final
Rafael Nadal and Feliciano Lopez won the decisive doubles match against Great Britain, taking Spain to the final of the Davis Cup. Nadal / Lopez beat Jamie Murray / Neal Skupski 7: 6 (3), 7: 6 (8).
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Nov 24, 2019, 01:16 am
The atmosphere was worthy of a Davis Cup encounter - of course, because Spain played as host. But also because some Britons were present more than during the week in the Caja Magica. More than 800 tickets had been bought by the British tennis association LTA before the game and given away to fans, Andy Murray himself had advertised the action in the social media. He was, however, in the semifinals only spectators. Roberto Bautista Agut, whose father passed away two days ago, was back on the bench in the Spanish team.
There were two chances to break in the first set, first for the Spaniards on serve Skupski in 2: 1, then 5: 5 on serve Nadal. Ultimately, the tiebreak had to decide, at 6: 3 it was finally the consistently highly emotional bull from Manacor, who brought with a determined passing ball the set guide for the Spaniards.
Nadal had previously netted a 1-1 draw with a single victory over Dan Evans after Kyle Edmund won the match against Feliciano Lopez .
Nadal is there when it matters
In the second set, Nadal again showed himself as a man with iron nerves. A set ball he had to fend off the 5: 6 deficit at their own serve, in the tiebreak finally Murray and Skupski had a 6: 4 lead. At 6: 5 served Murray, Nadal run down a drop shot and put a perfect lob over Skupski on the line; Another set ball of the British at 7: 6 he fired with a spectacular forehand pass inside-out. Lopez then served out the match.
Bitter for the British: They had lost only two points in the entire second set on their own serve, in the end even made four to-zero games in a row - and still went out as losers from the square.
Nadal on Bautista Agut: "Means much that he is back"
"I came into my room yesterday at 4:24 am We went through a lot this week," said Nadal after the win, which was again fixed at 40 minutes past midnight. He has now won seven matches in the last five days - five singles and two doubles.
"I'm 38 years old and I never thought I'd play a Davis Cup final in Madrid, with Rafa," Lopez said.
Nadal, however, was also pleased that Roberto Bautista Agut was back on board. "There will not be a perfect end for Roberto this week after what happened, The rest is secondary, but it means a lot that he's back with the team."
Spain will face Canada in the final on Sunday (starting at 16:00 CET, live on DAZN). Denis Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil had almost single-handedly created Canada's first Davis Cup final in the 119-year history of the Davis Cup.