Safin Comes Through for Russia In a Davis Cup Title at Home
While Marat Safin and the rest of Russia's Davis Cup team were holding hands and bowing to the crowd inside the Olympic Stadium, José Acasuso of Argentina was crying in his chair as his teammates huddled close and tried to make the best of a difficult situation.
After Argentina tied the Davis Cup final at 2-2 with a victory in the first match Sunday, it needed only a victory by Acasuso, ranked 27th in the world, to secure the title. Argentina was looking for its first championship since it began playing Davis Cup in 1921. It had played in only one other final, in 1981.
Acasuso, with his big serve working, produced plenty of trouble for the more celebrated Safin, who is ranked 26th. What Acasuso could not produce was the shot he needed most.
He slugged a short forehand into the net on match point with Safin ahead by 6-5 in the tie breaker in the fourth set, giving Safin a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory.
Acasuso put a hand on his face and staggered forward for the handshake. But Safin took quite a while to reach the net; he was engulfed by Russians intent on celebrating their country's second Davis Cup victory but its first at home. If Safin were not 6 feet 4 inches and 195 pounds, his teammates would certainly have thrown him into the air for quite a while longer.
'This is the best thing that's happened to me in the last two years,' said a Champagne-soaked Safin, who was also part of the winning doubles team Saturday.
In 2002, when Russia won its first Davis Cup, defeating France in Paris, Safin also accounted for 2 points; he won both his singles matches but lost the doubles. Russia has appeared in two other Davis Cup finals, both held in Moscow, losing to Sweden in 1994 and to the United States in 1995.
On Friday, the opening day of this final, Safin lost to David Nalbandian in straight sets and whined at length about the rubberized medium-speed surface that his team had chosen.
After that unconvincing start, it all came together for Safin on Saturday and Sunday in his native Moscow. On Saturday, he teamed with Dmitry Tursunov to overpower Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3, with some phenomenal serving. The match took much less than two hours and gave Russia a 2-1 lead.
'That was a big surprise for us, the way we lost that doubles,' said Argentina's captain, Alberto Mancini.
On Sunday, after Nalbandian dominated Nikolay Davydenko, 6-2, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, to force a decisive fifth match, Safin swaggered back onto the court and took over.
TENNIS