Wessels Edges Wawrinka to put Netherlands 2-0 up
04 Mar 2005 - Expo Centre, Fribourg, Switzerland - Marco Keller - SUI v NED
Wessels Edges Wawrinka to put Netherlands 2-0 up
The Dutch team holds a 2-0 lead after the first day of the Davis Cup by BNP
Paribas World Group first round tie between Switzerland and the Netherlands.
After Sjeng Schalken’s hard-fough victory over Marco Chiudinelli earlier in
the day, Peter Wessels also contributed a point by winning the clash of the
"first-timers" in almost four hours against Swiss No. 1 for this tie,
Stanislas Wawrinka.
The spectators in Fribourg saw a "tiebreak-battle". Wessels won the match
76(12) 67(4) 76(7) 64 and the strong-serving Dutchman got the only break of
the night in the last game of the match. Wessels, who was exerting constant
prssure on the Swiss with his attacking game, converted his fifth match point
after three hours 51 minutes in a game where Wawrinka held several game
points but also made no less than nine unforced errors. The 19-year-old Swiss
was slightly affected by nerves in the end, the last two points were a
doublefault and an easy forehand miss.
Wawrinka had also had his chances, especially in the lost tiebreaks. In both
of them, he held one setpoint, while in the first he saved no less than six
setpoints before finally giving in. The 2003 Roland Garros junior champion
fought very well and showed plenty of promising play but was unable to handle
his opponent’s strong serve adequately.
Wessels was upbeat: "I'm pretty happy with my performance. It was my first
Davis Cup match and I served well, had good volleys and took my chances when
they came up. Only the returns were not so good."
The young Swiss was disappointed of course: "It's a big disappointment for me
and also for the team. If I could have played better in two or three parts of
my game, the outcome could have changed. The biggest problem were the returns,
I wasn't able to deal with his serve."
The odds are good for the Dutch now: they only need one more point for victory.
In fact, Switzerland has found itself 0-2 down on 44 previous occasions in
Davis Cup but has never come back to win. Only in one previous match, in
Neuchatel 2001 against France, they at least managed a temporary comeback,
fighting back to 2-2 before losing. But then they had a certain Roger Federer
on their team, who now is sitting this tie out.
Marc Rosset, a very demanding captain, was happy with his players: "Of course,
it hurts to be 0-2 down but they fought very well. There was no difference in
the level of play, mainly the experience was in their favour."
Tjerk Bogtstra also was delighted with what he had seen over 7 hours and 47
minutes: "These were two thrillers. Everything was in there, those were
matches you don't see in normal tournaments. We made a few big points and
that was the key. For example, when Sjeng got the early lead in the fifth set
but also when Peter took his chances."
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