Vancouver, April 7 (IANS) Canada outlasted Italy in a five-set doubles marathon that took nearly four and half hours and went 2-1 up in their Davis Cup World Group quarterfinals tie.
Playing on the hard court at the University of British Columbia Thunderbird Arena Saturday, Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil beat the Italian pairing of Fabio Fognini and Daniele Bracciali 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, 15-13, reports Xinhua.
With the two countries deadlocked 13-13 in the final set, No.8-ranked Canada broke Fognini’s serve and Pospisil put it away in the 28th game of the set, moving the host nation within one point of securing its first semifinals appearance.
Nestor, the 40-year-old doubles specialist, said the key for Canada was that partner Pospisil and himself never got down, even after being up two love and letting Italy back into the match.
“There’s a lot of times during the fifth set especially where you could get frustrated, like missed opportunities or coming up with ridiculous shots, maybe some unfortunate shots for us, perhaps lucky. I mean credit to both of us for staying positive. We never got negative one time, no matter what the situation was,” he said.
The eight-time Grand Slam doubles winner and 2000 Sydney Olympics gold medallist in the doubles had nothing but praise for Pospisil, crediting his young partner with winning the match.
“Vasek stepped up his level in the fifth and he won the match because I had a lot of break points that I didn’t connect on at all and Vasek he made his shots and that was the difference.”
The two schedule singles matches Sunday have Canada’s top player Milos Raonic meeting Italian No.1 Andreas Seppi, as both won their opening matches Friday. World No.140 Pospisil will play Fognini (No.31) if Raonic loses.
In other Davis Cup World Group quarterfinals action Saturday, David Nalbandian and Horacio Zeballos won their doubles match to put Argentina 2-1 up on France, while Serbia moved to 2-1 against the Americans as Ilija Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic put away the top-ranked Bob and Mike Bryan in five sets
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