Monday, May 28, 2007 Argentines take World Team Cup
DUESSELDORF—Argentina beat the Czech Republic 2-1 on Saturday to win the World Team Cup for the third time.
Tomas Berdych put the Czech Republic ahead with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory over Juan Ignacio Chela, and Agustin Calleri then leveled the tie for Argentina with a 6-3, 6-1 demolition of Jan Hajek.
Calleri and Jose Acasuso beat Berdych and Martin Damm in the deciding doubles 2-6, 6-4, 10-4.
The Czech pair took the first set and broke to lead 4-2 in the second, but then lost the next four games to take the match into a championship deciding tiebreaker.
“They are a great doubles team and at first we couldn’t find a way to stay in the match,” Argentina captain Daniel Orsanic said. “The difference in the first set I didn’t think was that much.
“There were a few decisive points and we lost all of them, but I thought the match was closer than the scores tells.”
Argentina was playing its fifth final after lifting the trophy in 1980 and 2002 and finishing runner-up in 1989 and 2005. The Czech Republic had played three previous finals, in 1996, 1998 and 2003, and was defeated on each occasion.
The title was worth $390,000 to the winning team, with the losing finalist collecting $255,000.
In the opening singles, Berdych was initially out-rallied as Chela broke to lead 3-1. The Argentine then double-faulted to drop his own serve in the seventh game but broke right back when Berdych hit a backhand too long and served out the set.
Berdych forced an error that gave him a break for 2-0 in the second innings and he took the set by combining aggression from the baseline with skillful touches at the net.
Both players missed chances to break early in the deciding set and Chela led 3-2 before rain halted play. When the match continued, Berdych clinched a tiebreaker on his second match point.
“It was the best match for me this week,” Berdych said. “It was a good one, very tough and with a good end. It’s tough because you have to win all the points because Juan is just waiting for your mistakes. (AP)
