© 2012 Daily Tennis News Wire -
Davis Cup
Saturday Summary


We're on track for the Big Ending.

It now looks very likely that the tie between the United States and France will come down to the fifth match. The Bryans made that highly probable with a 6-4 6-4 7-6 win over Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau. The fourth match will pit Jo-Wilfried Tsonga against John Isner. That isn't open-and-shut, since neither one likes clay, but it's probably less unfriendly to Tsonga. Then it will be Ryan Harrison against Gilles Simon or someone. Simon doesn't like pressure. Harrison hardly knows what it feels like. It could be a very strange match.

Did the Serbs perhaps think that Janko Tipsarevic had so tired out Radek Stepanek that Stepanek couldn't play doubles? They could have put Viktor Troicki with Nenad Zimonjic, but they instead gave the slot to Ilija Bozoljac -- and Bozoljac and Zimonjic lost 6-4 6-2 7-6 to Stepanek and Tomas Berdych. That puts the Czechs up 2-1, with Berdych to face Janko Tipsarevic next.

The Spanish aren't quite through yet (meaning that we have no Day 1 clinches). Oliver Marach and Alexander Peya kept Austria alive with a 3-6 6-4 6-4 7-6 win over Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez. Of course, they still need to have Jurgen Melzer beat David Ferrer and Andreas Haider-Maurer top Nicolas Almagro if they are to advance. This was probably just prolonging the inevitable.

David Nalbandian had failed to win his five set singles match on Friday, but he did a lot to make up for it on Saturday with another five hour marathon. He and Eduardo Schwank came from a set down to beat Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic 3-6 7-6 6-3 6-7 8-6. So Argentina is up 2-1 -- and with Juan Martin del Potro set to play the fourth match.