Feb 13, 2012

Davis Cup 2012: Spain 5:0 Kazakhstan


OVIEDO, SPAIN: Spain confirmed its status as the leading nation in Davis Cup by BNP Paribas by completing a 5-0 whitewash of Kazakhstan on the final day of the first round tie between the two World Group nations.

The defending champions had sealed their place in April’s quarterfinals after impressive performances from Juan Carlos Ferrero and Nicolas Almagro in the singles on Friday, and Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers in yesterday’s doubles, but returned to the Palacio del los Deportes de Oviedo determined to show that they have the depth needed to retain the Davis Cup in 2012.

Evgeny Korolev replaced the injured Mikhail Kukushkin for Kazakhstan for the first of the reverse dead singles rubbers, hoping for a better performance on the court that he’d mustered in yesterday’s doubles. But Almagro, the Spanish No. 1, although not at the level he showed against Andrey Golubev on Friday, was too consistent for the Kazakh No. 3, needing just a single break of serve in the fifth game to take the first set 6-3.

Korolev stayed with Almagro throughout the second set, until forced to serve to stay in the match at 4-5. Fashioning match point off a Korolev error, Almagro converted it to win his fifth Davis Cup singles rubber 63 64 and put Spain 4-0 ahead.

The fifth and final rubber played out between Golubev and Granollers, making his Davis Cup singles debut. The 25-year-old Barcelona native did not disappoint, breaking to lead 3-1 in the opening set, before serving it out 63 as Golubev tried and failed to find a way back in to the match.

 
“When you start, you always dream to win, and if it’s 5-0 it’s even better,” Corretja said. "The main thing for me was to win, but today it’s important, when you go on the court you need to try your best, so I’m pleased to see that we also won again…thanks to all the team."

“Since the first day, we practise very well, we prepared the tie very focused, never easy to play on clay again after such a long time since the last tournament,” said Ferrero, who celebrated his 32nd birthday today. “It’s always nice to win 5-0, we expect that, but always you have to show it on the court, so we’re very happy about it.”