Davis Cup Saturday: The only time the world ever watches doubles.<\/p>\n
There was plenty of good tennis to be seen yesterday, as a handful of World Group ties depended heavily on the outcome of the doubles rubber. \u00a0Nowhere was that more the case than in Serbia, where Ilija Bozoljac<\/strong> and Nenad Zimonjic<\/strong> overcame Somdev Devvarman<\/strong> and Rohan Bopanna<\/strong> in a gripping fourth-set tiebreak. \u00a0It’s too bad that neither Leander Paes<\/strong> nor Mahesh Bhupath<\/strong>i could play; a team of either one and Bopanna could have won the match and put India in position for a major upset.<\/p>\n The upset of the day has to go to Jurgen Melzer<\/strong> and Oliver Marach<\/strong>, who saved the day for Austria by defeating Julien Benneteau<\/strong> and Michael Llodra<\/strong>. \u00a0The French team was heavily favored, and Melzer was able to make up for his loss on Friday. \u00a0The other result that surprised me was the easy defeat of Romania by Argentina. \u00a0Sure, it was on clay and the Argentines were at home, but Victor Hanescu<\/strong> and Horia Tecau<\/strong> are almost surely the better doubles team.<\/p>\n So, a quick recap: Sweden, Argentina, and Spain have clinched their quarterfinal berths. \u00a0Serbia needs to win just one of two lopsided singles matches. \u00a0The U.S. needs only Andy Roddick<\/strong> to come through with another win. \u00a0The Czechs are in a similar position with Tomas Berdych<\/strong>. \u00a0The French should rest easy knowing that the final rubber (if necessary) will pit Jeremy Chardy<\/strong> against Stefan Koubek<\/strong>.<\/p>\n That leaves Croatia and Germany. \u00a0As I write this, Marin Cilic<\/strong> has just sealed a straight-set victory to lock up the tie at 2, meaning that it all comes down to Florian Mayer<\/strong> and Ivan Dodig<\/strong>. \u00a0Originally I predicted a German win; at this point, I might give the edge to Dodig and the Croatians.<\/p>\n First-time winners:<\/em> A couple of players have made names for themselves outside of Davis Cup this week. \u00a0Andres Molteni<\/strong> of Argentina was contesting his first challenger-level final in Salinas yesterday, against 100th-ranked Horacio Zeballos<\/strong>. \u00a0Molteni won several futures events last year but hasn’t gained much traction at the next level. \u00a0In fact, the final was only Molteni’s third time facing a top-100 opponent.<\/p>\n Molteni came through, victorious in two tight sets. \u00a0The Argentine is currently #236 in the world; the tournament win should rocket him up about 50 spots, ensuring he can play all the clay court challengers he wants for several months.<\/p>\n Also in the winner’s circle is young Australian Benjamin Mitchell<\/strong>, recording his first title. \u00a0His came at Australia F2 over countryman Michael Look<\/strong>. \u00a0The win will get him inside the top 500 for the first time, an impressive feat for an 18-year-old.<\/p>\n Indian Wells: <\/em>After we’ve put Davis Cup behind us, it’ll be all Indian Wells all the time for a couple of weeks. \u00a0For now, all we can do is talk about who will be playing there. \u00a0David Nalbandian<\/strong> is not–despite notching the win, he struggled through his Davis Cup match in pain, and will be skipping both Indian Wells and Miami. \u00a0Tommy Haas<\/strong>, however, will be playing, his first professional appearance in more than a year.<\/p>\n See you tomorrow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Davis Cup Saturday: The only time the world ever watches doubles. There was plenty of good tennis to be seen yesterday, as a handful of World Group ties depended heavily on the outcome of the doubles rubber. \u00a0Nowhere was that more the case than in Serbia, where Ilija Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic overcame Somdev Devvarman … Continue reading Sunday Topspin: Day o’ Doubles<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,24,27,31,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challengers","category-daily-recaps","category-davis-cup","category-doubles","category-indian-wells"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}