Paris: Inspired by the absent Lleyton Hewitt, Australia booked their Davis Cup quarter-final berth with a 3-2 victory over Switzerland that came down to the final rubber.
Heavy-hitting debutant Chris Guccione heroically wrapped up the weekend on the back of 39 aces, crushing George Bastl 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) to send the visitors into an April quarter-final against Belarus, who were 4-1 winners over Spain.
Peter Luczak, a close friend of former world No 1 Hewitt, who missed the tie on clay with an ankle injury, said that he had been in text message contact with the Davis Cup sparkplug.
"I've been getting texts from Lleyton," Luczak said. He said things like "good luck," and "fight hard and do Australia proud". He's been sending texts to all the guys on the team.
Captain John Fitzgerald was proud of the winning efforts of his untried squad.
"I'm pretty elated, it was a great performance from our team . I also pay tribute to the Swiss, they're a very classy outfit, this was a painful loss for them."
The Swiss had to make do without world No 1 Roger Federer, who like Hewitt kept in touch with his compatriots.
"With all that he has already done for Switzerland, it's a bit too easy to criticize him for not being here," said Stanislas Wawrinka.
Wawrinka kept Switzerland in the chase as he made it 2-2 with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (7/9), 6-2 defeat of Peter Luczak.
The Switzerland-Australia clash was one of just two World Group ties still undecided on the final day of play.
In the other, world No 3 Andy Roddick quickly took care of business, giving the United States an unbeatable lead with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Romanian Razvan Sabau as the Americans won 4-1.
In Friday's opening match of the best-of-five tie, Roddick blew a match point in the third set and then fell in five sets to Andrei Pavel.
Along the way Roddick fell prey to a stomach ailment that had him vomiting in the later stages, and after Pavel's 6-7 (2/7), 2-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-2, 6-4 victory the American required intravenous fluids.
Roddick had been slated to play Hanescu in the reverse singles, but the Romanian was forced to sit out because of a left rib injury sustained in Saturday's doubles.
American twins Bob and Mike Bryan held a 6-2 lead over Hanescu and Horia-Vlad Tecau on Saturday when Hanescu retired from the match.
That sent the Americans into Sunday's concluding two singles matches with a 2-1 lead, thanks to James Blake's 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 victory over Hanescu on Friday.
Blake beat Tecau in the final, meaningless singles.
In the round of eight, the United States will face Chile, who had sealed their victory on Saturday and finished with a 4-1 victory over 2005 runners-up Slovakia.
Defending champions Croatia had also clinched a victory by Saturday, after singles wins by Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic and a doubles victory for the same pair over Austria.
Ljubicic, thrust into the captain's role after the resignation last month of Nikola Pilic, posted a brisk 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 singles win over Stefan Koubek on Friday, after Ancic rallied to beat Jurgen Melzer 6-7 (2/7), 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
Ljubicic and Ancic rallied to beat Julian Knowle and Melzer 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 8-6 in doubles, then took Sunday off.
Austria were spared a whitewash as Alexander Peya and Koubek winning the dead rubbers.
Croatia next faces Argentina, who completed a 5-0 sweep of Sweden.
France and Russia had booked their quarter-finalre-match on Saturday, and had only to play out their ties.
With France's opening singles winners Sebastien Grosjean and Richard Gasquet taking the day off, Rainer Schuettler and Tommy Haas salvaged a little German pride, making the final score 3-2 for France.
Meanwhile in Amsterdam, Russia completed a 5-0 sweep of the Netherlands.
Comments
0 comment