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DUESSELDORF (Germany), May 25: Wildcard entrants Argentina beat Russia to win the World Team Cup for the first time in 22 years on Saturday.
Clay court experts Guillermo Canas and Jose Acasuso beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin in the singles matches to seal a memorable triumph for the South American outsiders.
Argentina, who face Russia in the Davis Cup semifinals in September, were called into the tournament after Croatia pulled out due to Goran Ivanisevic’s shoulder injury.
World number two Safin withdrew with back pain in the third set of his match against Acasuso to give the little-known Argentine a 2-6 6-3 3-0 victory. World number 17 Canas then overcame Kafelnikov 6-4 6-2 to take the tournament.
Safin took the first set with little trouble against the 19-year-old Argentine. But the 22-year-old Russian, runner-up in Hamburg to Roger Federer last weekend, lost his cool in the second set, smashing his raquet as Acasuso broke his serve in the first game.
Safin questioned several line calls and repeatedly asked the umpire to silence the crowd who were shouting for the Argentine underdog. Safin served two double faults in the third game for Acasuso to break his serve again.
Safin broke back in the fourth and eighth games as Acasuso made several unforced errors.
But Acasuso broke Safin’s serve again in the fifth game and in the ninth to take the set 6-3 with a powerful forehand.
The Argentine went 2-0 up in the third set after breaking Safin’s serve before the Russian asked for treatment on for his back.
After a few minutes of massage, Safin played another full game, but retired in the fourth when he was down 0-40 on his own serve to give the match to Acasuso.
Canas disposed of Kafelnikov in just one hour and thirteen minutes, breaking his serve in the third game of the first set and in the first and fifth of the second set.
Kafelnikov has been struggling on clay this season and lost all of his singles matches in Duesseldorf, beaten by Britain’s Tim Henman, Germany’s Tommy Haas, and Spain’s Albert Costa as well as Canas. He has said he will retire at the end of the year if he can lead Russia to victory in the Davis Cup.
The last time Argentina won the World Team cup was in 1980 with Guillermo Vilas and Jose-Luis Clerc.
Result:
Final
Argentina 3 Russia 0
Jose Acasuso beat Marat Safin 2-6 6-3 3-0, retired (Safin withdrew injured); Guillermo Canas beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-4 6-2
Gaston Etlis/Lucas Arnold beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov/ Andrei Cherkasov 6-4 6-1.
MADRID: Monica Seles, who will be aiming to win a fourth French Open crown in Paris in the next two weeks, warmed up for the Grand Slam event in style on Saturday when she beat Chanda Rubin 6-4, 6-2 in the final of the $170,000 WTA event here.
Top seed Seles, who had suffered two shock defeats in recent events in Charleston against Stephanie Foretz and against Austria’s Barbara Schwartz in the Fed Cup, rediscovered her form right on time with the French Open about to start on Monday.
Victory meant a second title of the season for Seles and the 53rd of her career.
She wrapped up the first set with a fine cross-court passing shot off the Rubin serve while the crucial moment in the second set came in the fourth game when, with Seles holding a break point, a shot from Rubin which had been called in by the linesman was over-ruled by the chair umpire.
Rubin, who is rebuilding her career after knee surgery, never recovered as Seles cruised to victory.
ST POELTEN (Austria): No one was more suprised than Nicolas Lapentti than the Ecuadorian himself when he beat Spain’s Fernando Vicente 7-5, 6-4 to win the $381,000 ATP event here on Saturday.
“I was not expecting to win here, I’ve had a rotten season on clay courts,” he admitted.
But Lapentti got off to a terrible start and was 5-2 down before rallying to save three set points to finally take the first set.
Vicente, who said on Friday he was tired, slugged it out to 4-4 in the second set when Lapenti broke serve and then held his own to win the tournament.—Reuters/AFP
