(December 3, 2011) It may be a battle between David and Goliath if Argentina hopes to come back from the deficit after the first day of the Davis Cup final in Seville, Spain, but if anyone should be involved in that battle it is David Nalbandian. The stalwart Davis Cup player teamed up with doubles specialist Eduardo Schwank to dispatch of reeling Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 to force a third day of action.
While Argentine fans were crushed by the excruciating loss that Juan Martin del Potro suffered to World No. 5 David Ferrer, the hope still remains for their first ever Davis Cup title, possibly the most important prize in tennis to the nation. Captain Tito Vazquez had hoped that del Potro would be able to square the tie on Friday, but afterwards said, ““That was the match that we wanted from our side. We were very close but not close enough. It’s very difficult. For us we have to start thinking about tomorrow, about winning the doubles, and then who knows.”
A late entry to the Argentine team, Schwank partnered with Nalbandian perfectly to overcome the surprise doubles pairing of Lopez and Verdasco. While the Spanish pair has had success in the past, Saturday’s loss moves them to 1-11 in their last 12 matches, though they did pair to win a point over Nalbandian in doubles in 2008 when he paired with Agustin Calleri.
The same magic was not in the cards for Lopez and Verdasco in Seville, who first saw the match going south when Lopez was broken in the fifth game. As the first set continued as expected, Verdasco opened up the second set, but his natural tendency to stay at the baseline in doubles proved costly as three forehand errors gave the Argentines an early lead.
Another break in the third game of the set rattled Verdasco, who struggled for most of the match to find his range. The final set did not see any marked improvement from the Spanish team, who dropped four straight points to lose serve in the opening game, giving Nalbandian and Schwank all they needed to seal an easy victory in under two hours.
Following the loss, Verdasco was deflated both from his Davis Cup results this year and his deteriorating results following a career best 2010 season, saying, "There are just days that things don't go through, and today was one of those days. I really did try and fight all the time, and it was not possible this time."
Unfortunately for Argentina, the win puts the Davis Cup title squarely in the hands of Rafael Nadal, who will have the chance to clinch victory if he can win over a likely exhausted del Potro on Sunday. Should del Potro pull the upset, it would be most likely that Vazquez would substitute his Davis Cup veteran Nalbandian in for Juan Monaco for the deciding match against Ferrer.
After the match, Nalbandian felt good about his performance saying, “That’s Davis Cup. I really like it, I play better when I’m playing for my country and today we both played a great match from the beginning and it was unbelievable for us.”
Nalbandian holds a 22-5 record in singles rubbers in Davis Cup to go along with a 12-5 record in doubles. Schwank is typically reserved for the doubles rubber and holds a 4-1 record but Vazquez sometimes passes over Schwank in order to shore his team with Juan Ignacio Chela.