[DC]Belarus in Control After Day One
Belarus in Control After Day One
09 Apr 2004
Belarus is 2-0 up against Argentina following Max Mirnyi's 62 62 62 defeat of
Guillermo Canas in the second rubber in Minsk.
Twenty-six-year-old Guillermo Canas who first played for the Argentine Davis
Cup team in 1998, returned to the team after a two-year absence to face Max
Mirnyi . The players had met twice before, with one victory apiece.
As in the first round tie, between Belarus and Russia, when Safin, the
Russian No.1, arrived in Minsk just two days before the tie, Canas was
urgently called upon at the last minute after Argentina lost both David
Nalbandian and Guillermo Coria through injury. During yesterday's draw he
looked tired and many experts questioned whether it would be difficult to
acclimatize and prepare for playing on the quick Taraflex surface in Minsk.
Canas replied that he had expected the surface to be quick but felt
unexpectedly sharp in practice.
In addition to the fast surface and Canas픠late arrival, Max ' The Beast '
Mirnyi had one more advantage. Before arriving in Belarus, the Argentine had
had some problems with his injured knee, which continued to trouble him in
practice. However, captain Gustavo Luza still preferred Canas to the young
debutant Juan Monaco.
In the first set, Mirnyi served nine aces, reaching speeds of over 220 km/h
and had a very high first serve percentage (74%). On the contrary, Canas
could only manage 46 % of his first serves and hit several double faults
Mirnyi, approaching the net effectively, broke in the second and final games
of the set to take it 6-2.
The second set was played in a similar vein, Mirnyi continued to serve
powerfully and his frequent charges to the net appeared to demoralize his
opponent. He soon wrapped up the second set by the same score.
In the third set, Canas tried to subdue Mirnyi from the baseline but he put
too many balls out of court or Mirnyi attacked and won the point. The
Belarusian No.1 soon claimed a 62 62 62 victory.
"The main factor of today's success is that we played in our native land. The
surface and the balls, which we have chosen, helped us. We were also helped
very much by the support of the Belarusian spectators. Besides that both
Argentine players looked very angry. It helped us too" said Mirnyi.
"Today I did my best and had a great success. During the last 8 years Canas
has been among the top 50 to 80 players of the world. Therefore he was a
serious opponent,"he continued.
"2-0 - nobody could dream of such an outcome on the first day. And not only
2-0. Both me and Vladimir won our matches as fast as we could. This gives us
one more advantage for tomorrow" ,he concluded.
The defeated Canas said of his opponent "He played the greatest match."
At the end of the day, Belarus captain Sergei Tetrein summed up the day's
events, "not everything was so simple as it seemed to everybody. Our guys did
a good job,2-0 it is good, but all will be decided tomorrow."
Calleri looked forward to the second day, "Voltchkov played in his style. All
the time I was waiting for a chance but didn't receive it. The third set was
the best that I played. We knew that the surface would be quick but it was
superfast really. Now we have got used to it and tomorrow we will improve our
playing."
Argentina must win on Saturday to still have a chance of reaching the Davis
Cup by BNP Paribas semifinals. At the moment, Mirnyi and Voltchkov are
scheduled to play Calleri and Lucas Arnold, but players can be changed up to
one hour before the start of play.
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※ 編輯: maria08452 來自: 61.230.104.120 (04/11 03:48)
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