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Men's Tennis
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Women's Tennis
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| Saturday, February 10 |
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| Ecuador upsets Australia in epic doubles match Reuters | |||
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PERTH, Australia -- Nicolas and Giovanni
Lapentti beat Wayne Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge in an epic
doubles match on Saturday to keep alive Ecuador's slim hopes of
beating Australia in their world group first round Davis Cup
tie.
The Lapentti brothers saved three match points before
clinching victory 6-2, 2-6, 1-6, 7-6, 12-10 to prevent Australia
from taking an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five tie.
"We kept fighting, we won that tiebreak in the fourth and in
the end it was just who was hanging in the toughest," Nicolas Lapentti
said.
Australia is still a strong favorite to win the tie and
advance to a second round meeting with either Brazil or Morocco
in April.
Australia leads 2-1 after winning Friday's two singles matches and
needs to win only one of Sunday's two reverse singles to claim
victory.
But Australian Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald said his
players knew they would have to play well to secure the victory.
"These guys are quality players, they proved that today,"
Fitzgerald said.
"They have a lot of courage, they hung in there and their
confidence grew as the match wore on."
Giovanni will take on Patrick Rafter in Sunday's first
reverse singles before his older brother Nicolas faces Lleyton
Hewitt in the final match.
"I'm confident we will win this game, but you can't take
anything for granted," Fitzgerald said.
"You've got to go out and do the job on the day."
Australia went into Saturday's doubles match as big
favorites but knew they were in for a long day in the 98.6-degree heat
after the Ecuadorians comfortably took the first set.
But the Australians regained control, easily winning the
next two, before Ecuador, who made the world group for the first
time by beating Britain at Wimbledon last year, won the fourth
in a tiebreak.
Woodbridge served for the match at 5-3 in the fifth and held
three match points but could not convert any as the Lapentti
brothers broke and went on to win the 83-minute long final set. | |
ALSO SEE Brazil first team to reach quarterfinals Swiss win doubles, take 2-1 lead over U.S. in Davis Cup Spain's reign as Davis Cup champions is short France leads Belgium 3-0 to book second round berth Swedes win doubles to lead Czechs 2-1 Russia leads Slovakia 2-1 after doubles victory Romania win doubles to lead Germany 2-1 Davis Cup results Rafter, Hewitt give Australia 2-0 lead against Ecuador | |
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