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Men's Tennis
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Women's Tennis
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| Sunday, February 11 |
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| Germany takes both singles matches to advance Reuters | |||
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BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany -- Nicolas Kiefer
celebrated his Davis Cup return by presenting Germany with a
hard-fought 3-2 victory against Romania in the first round on Sunday.
Kiefer, who had not played for his country in the
competition since a first round defeat by Russia in Frankfurt
two years ago, crushed unheralded Gabriel Trifu 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 in
the decisive singles.
Tommy Haas had earlier pulled the hosts level by beating
Romanian No. 1 Andre Pavel 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.
Germany, Davis Cup winners in 1988, 1989 and 1993, will meet
the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. The Dutch beat champion
Spain 4-1 in Eindhoven.
The unfancied Romanians put the Germans on the verge of
elimination when Pavel and Trifu beat Marc Goellner and David
Prinosil in Saturday's doubles to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Kiefer, who left the team over a row with Boris Becker, then
the team's manager and a doubles player, had worried his fans by
losing his first singles against Pavel on Friday.
With Becker among the 6,000 crowd in Braunschweig's indoor
hall, Kiefer made amends by outclassing Trifu. The Romanian
accumulated unforced errors until he committed a double fault on
the first match point.
"I returned well and played well on the important points,"
said Kiefer, slowly recapturing his best form after an injury
break.
"I hope this win will have boosted Nicolas's confidence for
the matches to come," said Germany captain Carl-Uwe Steeb, who
can rely on Germany's best possible team now that Kiefer is
playing again.
Haas tied it up Haas was instrumental in Germany's win with a convincing performance against Pavel in a match that ended in dramatic fashion. Pavel fought back from 4-0 down in the third set to force a tie-break in which Haas survived four set points before a return winner, which clipped the net cord, gave him his first match point. Pavel hit a backhand into the net to lose it 8-6 and bow out. "I played really well until I was 4-0 up in the third set," said Haas after improving his impressive record in Davis Cup singles matches to 11-1. "Then I became a bit nervous. I knew he would do everything to fight his way back into the match and that's exactly what happened. He's a dangerous player. I'm glad I was able to avoid a fourth set." Few had favored Romania because their No. 2 player, Adrian Voinea, pulled out after suffering a groin injury in training on Tuesday. Captain Adrian Marcu brought in Ion Moldovan, but he played so poorly in a defeat by Haas in Friday's opener that Trifu took his place for the decisive match against Kiefer. | |
ALSO SEE Dutch complete 4-1 victory against sorry Spain Australia beats Ecuador in first round of Davis Cup Sweden edges out Czech Republic 3-2 France routs Belgium 5-0 Brazil wins tie 4-1 to set up repeat of last year's semi Kafelnikov comeback gives Russia 3-2 Davis Cup win Switzerland swamps United States out of Davis Cup Davis Cup results Romania win doubles to lead Germany 2-1 | |
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