The Davis Cup semi-final tie between Argentina and Russia promised to be a closely contested encounter on paper, but it didn’t turn out that way as Argentina took a comfortable lead winning both rubbers in straight sets. With Juan Martin Del Potro’s sudden rise up the rankings, Argentina are starting to look like a highly formidable team and they showed this yesterday as both Del Potro and David Nalbandian outclassed their Russian opponents in straight sets, Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev.The first rubber contested between David Nalbandian and Igor Andreev was a slightly inconsistent affair especially in the first set, but in the end, Nalbandian’s variety, tactical game and ability to play the big points was the decisive factor. For anyone that has seen Nalbandian play Davis Cup before, especially in Argentina, will know that Nalbandian thrives in Davis Cup playing for his country, and in this kind of atmosphere. He is especially animated in these kinds of matches and plays with more focus than in main tour matches.
Andreev, in comparison is hard to read in terms of what mental state he is in for these matches and seems to have his ‘game face’ on for the entire match. Andreev, himself has been known to perform impressively for his country on some occasions, the win against Fernando Gonzalez in Chile last year comes to mind specifically although this year, he also lost to Radek Stepanek at home, on clay in three convincing sets.
The match started off evenly poised in the first set with both players holding serve, and only one break point being fashioned which was on Nalbandian’s serve. The level of play from both players was inconsistent, but both were effective enough to take care of their own service games. Nalbandian looked flat-footed with his movement often coughing up errors getting caught out of position, although he was clearly not lacking in energy.
Andreev was efficient in his game, and stuck to his strengths during the match using his heavy and accurate serve to good effect and making use of his favoured off-forehand, although it started to look more predictable as the match went on. Despite some inconsistent play, Nalbandian looked ready for the battle and although he was lacking in execution, he wasn’t going to let it deter him and he continued to show purpose in his shot selections and strike his groundstrokes with conviction.
In the first point of the first set tie-break, Nalbandian missed a backhand return long by a couple of millimetres, which would have been a winner, then he later missed a forehand deep by a similar amount which allowed Andreev to take a commanding 4-1 lead in the tie-break. It looked like Nalbandian’s luck was all going against him when one of his shots clipped the top of the tape and was called out. But it was then overruled, which Andreev disputed to no avail. That changed the momentum as Andreev started to get tight and tried to bludgeon his way out of trouble with big shots, which appeared more forced than usual. Nalbandian then played his best point of the set to win the set moving Andreev out of position after an extended rally, and quickly seizing the opportunity at the net.
The second and third sets had a different tone, with Nalbandian starting to play with more confidence and looking like he had the match under control. His footwork was starting to look better and he was getting more comfortable in his movement, moving more effortlessly around the court.
As the match progressed, Nalbandian was starting to learn that he could open up the court, then approach to Andreev’s backhand and finish off the point at the net which was a lower risk strategy than what he was doing before. Andreev was finding it harder to take control of the points, although he was able to remain on serve until the final game in the third set. Nalbandian played the best game of the match to break serve to win the match, which he won with two return winners and a trademark backhand down-the-line.
The match between Juan Martin Del Potro and Nikolay Davydenko turned out to be a one-sided affair right from the outset, with the exception of the end of the second set where Del Potro nearly relinquished a double break advantage. Del Potro is currently on a run of good form winning 23 of his 24 last matches, and is a player on the rise. He had previously played two singles matches in Davis Cup for Argentina, but both away matches in Austria and Sweden respectively.
Given that this was his debut at home and that with his current run of form brings high expectations, it was a test to see if Del Potro could handle the pressure. Based on what I had seen of him in the last few months, I expected that he would react to the occsion positively, given his relatively calm demeanour, which he did. Davydenko, in comparison has been known to struggle to find his best tennis in this competition and is often slow to adapt to changing surfaces.
The match was characterized by long baseline rallies with both players playing controlled aggressive tennis, with the difference being that Del Potro was doing it much better with more margin of error on his shots (or so it seemed given how well he was playing) whereas Davydenko was trying to hit closer to the lines and was often the one making the errors at the end of points.
One telling statistic in the first set was the winners-unforced error count which was a mere 2-2 for Del Potro suggesting that he was winning the majority of points by forcing errors. Davydenko could not seem to get any advantage on his serve as they started to engage in extended rallies on the majority of points.
The second set started in the same vein as the first and it looked like it was going to be an embarrassing rout for Davydenko at 4-1 and two breaks down. Del Potro started to get nervous with more errors coming off his racquet while Davydenko started to get the upper hand in more of these long rallies. The game at 5-3 was the climax of the match, which was extended to five or six deuces until Del Potro finally served out the set.
One interesting thing I noticed in this match was how in these rallies, Del Potro looked every bit as impressive defensively as Davydenko. He doesn’t look as effortless with his movement and sometimes it looks as if he is taking a giant lunge (even though he isn’t) but he positions himself well and this was particularly evident in one point in the third set when he bent his knees all the way down to find an exceptional angle on the backhand passing shot winner.
As soon as Del Potro won the second set, normal service resumed and he continued to break Davydenko’s serve at will wrapping up the match with ease 6-1 6-4 6-2.
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