Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych's heroics help defending champions thump Argentina
Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych led holders Czech Republic to a third Davis Cup final in five years after breezing past Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq and Horacio Zeballos in Saturday’s doubles.
Radek Stepanek
ADVERTISEMENT
Stepanek and Berdych won 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and three minutes to earn an unbeatable 3-0 lead after they had dominated Friday’s singles.u00a0The Czechs, who won the 2012 trophy by beating Spain 3-2 in Prague, will travel to either Canada or Serbia for the November 15-17 final.
“It’s pure fantasy, the guys played at a hundred percent again,” said team captain Jaroslav Navratil.u00a0“They didn’t give the Argentinians a chance, they wiped them out, and we’re very happy we can fight for the lovely trophy again after a year.”
“We would like to keep the trophy because it’s beautiful,” said Stepanek.u00a0“We’ve been doing well and I believe we have one more step ahead of us to make things even nicer. A victory is realistic,” he added.
Argentina captain Martin Jaite lavished praise on the defending champions.u00a0“We played against maybe the best team at the moment in the Davis Cup, they have a great record,” he said. “They played better than us both yesterday and today.”
The Czech duo on Saturday won the 13th of their 14 Davis Cup doubles rubbers together since teaming up in 2007, while Berlocq and Zeballos played their debut doubles match together in Prague.
Stepanek, the World No 5 in doubles rankings, got a boost from the US Open doubles title with Leander Paes a week ago.u00a0
Pushed on by an emotional crowd of more than 11,000 fans around the superfast hardcourt at Prague’s O2 Arena, the Czechs benefited from good serving and Stepanek’s dominance at the net. All they needed was four breaks, one apiece in the first two sets and two in the third.
Berlocq was the first to lose his serve in game eight of the first set, handing the Czechs a 6-3 set win.u00a0He failed again late in the second set which the Czechs won 6-4. Each of the Argentinians then lost their serve in the last set which the Czechs took 6-2.
“We played a great game. Everything was in the right place today, we didn’t drop a serve,” said Berdych. “As long as you are able to make pressure on them, you make chances, and that’s what we've done today,” he added.u00a0
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
