[DC]Safin and Youzhny Put Russia in Front
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A straight-sets doubles victory for Marat Safin and Mikhail
Youzhny over Max Mirnyi and Alexander Shvec has put Russia
in the driving seat in their away tie to Belarus in Minsk.
The Russian pair were too strong for the hosts, who fielded
Shvec as a replacement for the more experienced Vladimir
Voltchkov following his ankle injury on Friday. Safin and
Youzhny won 64 75 76(4) to give their country a 2-1 lead going
into Sunday's reverse singles matches.
Vladimir Voltchkov's dramatic retirement in the first rubber
against Igor Andreev yesterday left the Belarussians without
one of their leaders. Voltchkov was substituted in the
Belarussian pair by 31-year old Alexander Shvec, well known
in Belarus for his fighting nature when playing for his country
and his doubles skills.
Following the presentation ceremony, which was opened by the
President of the Republic of Belarus and included a minute of
silence to honor the memory of victims of yesterday's tragedy
in Moscow, the Belarussians, combining well, won the first four
points and the opportunity to break Safin’s serve. The
breakpoint was saved and the set went with serve until the
tenth game when errors from both Belarus players allowed the
Russian pair to take the first set 6-4.
The Russian’s tactics were based on playing on Shvec. Mirnyi
appeared tired and somewhat isolated because of the Russian
tactics and struggled with his serve. After trading service
breaks in the middle of the second set, Safin and Youzhny broke
in the twelfth game to take the set 7-5.
In the third set tiebreak, Mirnyi’s serve again let him down
and Belarus soon faced triple matchpoint. Shvec managed to save
the first but a double fault from Mirnyi handed victory to Russia.
“Shvec has not played for one year and a half and it was difficult
for him to play this match. It was visible that he was nervous.
That is because we played on him for the whole rubber. There is a
very rapid surface, therefore serve is one of the primary factors.
If you lose a break it will be very difficult to recoup.” Safin
said afterwards.
“We did everything we could. Taking into account, Alexander Shvec
has not had match practice, we tried to play in a varied and
unpredictable way. Before the tie we had never played together.
Now we hope for the best. I must win my match. If it happens, we
will have equal score again,” said Max Mirnyi.
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