Spain’s second straight Davis Cup win showed its tennis talent extends beyond Rafael Nadal.
Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco beat Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7), 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday for Spain to clinch an unbeatable 3-0 lead and become the first repeat champs since Sweden 11 years ago.
The past two campaigns have shown that Spain can win without Nadal. The four-time French Open champion beat Berdych in Friday’s singles, but missed last year’s final victory at Argentina on a carpet surface designed to stop the Spanish clay-court masters.
“Well, first thing, you have to have good players,” Nadal said of his team’s win. “In Spain, we have a lot. Sure, last year was disappointing for me not to be there, but for sure the team was better. They play unbelievable and they won, so they did much better without me than with me.”
Spain has now played in five finals this decade, is unbeaten in its last 20 series on clay and has won 18 straight at home, stretching back to 1999.
“That says everything — to win four times in nine years. It shows how strong Spanish tennis is in general,” Stepanek said. “The team is so strong, you have four players now in the team but you can build up a second team that is nearly as strong.”
After Nadal opened on Friday with a straight sets win, David Ferrer rallied from a two-set deficit to beat Stepanek in a five-set match that took longer than four hours to improve to 5-0 in singles play this season.
The 18th-ranked Ferrer, who returned from a one-month layoff because of a hamstring injury, called the win the biggest of his career.
The team prides itself on its unity in a country where allegiances can sometimes divide along regional lines. Captain Albert Costa made a point of bringing Juan Carlos Ferrero and Tommy Robredo to the news conference as they had also played a part this year.
“I think to play for our country, for all of us, it’s very special,” Lopez said. “It’s an extra motivation that we all have.”
Costa agreed: “In Spain, there’s a long tradition of tennis. Everyone is motivated here. I don’t think this team has any limits.”
The Davis Cup final turned out to be the perfect stage for Nadal, who arrived on a career-worst four-match losing streak.
“[Nadal] has up and downs like everybody in the world does,” Stepanek said. “He deserves respect for what he did.”
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out