Translated material
Unenchanted court
The Russian national tennis team reached the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup
In the most difficult match of the 1/8 finals, the Russian team beat the Chileans with a score of 3:2 and will compete with the French in the next round. This is the fourth victory of our tennis players over the Chilean national team in the fight for the “silver salad bowl”. Before this, three times athletes from the USSR and Russia achieved success over rivals from this country - in 1963, 1967 and 2005. True, all three matches took place on our territory. This year, for the first time ever, the Russians played away. For the Chileans, the “home field” factor was of fundamental importance: in the last nine home cup matches they were not inferior to anyone. This time, the golden rule of the Chileans - not to lose on home court - did not work.The Russians survived, being one step away from defeat, since the fate of the confrontation between both teams was decided in the last fifth singles match. When a large audience, with the exception of one and a half dozen fans from Russia, cheered against Igor Andreev entering the court, and encouraged by the outcome of the two previous matches, they sang the anthem of their country to the entire stadium. In this most difficult psychological situation, Russian athletes proved that they are capable of winning against all odds and are rightfully called the strongest team in the world.
Both captains Shamil Tarpishchev and Hans Gildemeister threw into battle the best forces they had at that time. There was no doubt that the Chileans would bet on two players: 2004 Olympic champions Fernando Gonzalez, a finalist at the 2007 Australian Open, and Nicolas Massa. The latter, however, was not particularly impressive with his results after the triumph in Athens. Tarpishchev didn’t have much to choose from. After last year's victory of the Russians in the Davis Cup final over the Argentina national team, significant changes took place in our quartet. One of the team leaders, Nikolai Davydenko, was unable to support his colleagues due to injury. Dmitry Tursunov did not help either, who, although he came to Chile, never took to the court, since his hand injury was still making itself felt. The entire burden of responsibility fell on the shoulders of Marat Safin and Igor Andreev, who was involuntarily assigned the role of the “weak link”. Andreev missed the entire last season due to surgery on his leg. And although the injury did not bother him during the match, Andreev constantly applied ice to his operated knee for insurance.
Several times during the meeting between the Russians and the Chileans, the virtual script was rewritten. From an easy victory and an early end to the match after the first day of the confrontation, since the Russians won two singles games, to the last, fifth decisive one, before which the guests managed to level the score - 2:2.
Let us briefly recall how the situation developed. In the opening match on Friday, Safin dealt with Massu without any problems - 3:6, 2:6, 2:6. After the match, the Chilean had a hard time finding words to explain what happened, but he couldn’t find any sensible counterarguments. Although preliminary the chances of Safin and Massu were estimated as 40 to 60 in favor of the owner of the court.
Victory in the second “single” between Andreev and Fernando Gonzalez was unconditionally given to the Olympic champion from Chile. Therefore, its outcome looked discouraging for the Chileans: Andreev won - 4:6, 6:4, 6:3, 6:2. “Igor fulfilled the coaching instructions exactly: try to act as varied as possible in order to ruin the opponent’s game, and then impose his own style on him,” explained Shamil Tarpishchev.
The results of the first day allowed us to hope for an early victory for the Russian team. This was confirmed by the words of our captain that “there is no point in postponing this match on the third day, because physical condition will play a key role.” However, in the doubles match, Safin and Andreev lost to Gonzalez and Massa - 6:7 (3), 3:6, 4:6. After the doubles duel, opinions were expressed that, they say, Andreev should have been given a rest. But Tarpishchev categorically rejected them, saying that Andreev had to play at all costs. “It’s better than burning out on the bench,” explained the Russian captain. - Igor, of course, likes to act at a fast pace on the court, which is difficult to do in pairs. Therefore, Safin carried the game on himself. He did everything he could and even everything he couldn’t.”
The further course of the meeting only exacerbated the already twisted intrigue. “I know how Safin plays, what he likes and what he doesn’t. And this, I hope, will help me,” Gonzalez said before the meeting with Safin. The correctness of his words was confirmed by the score of personal matches - 3:2 in favor of Gonzalez. Moreover, Safin suffered all three defeats last year. On the court in Le Serena, what Shamil Tarpishchev most feared happened. Subconsciously, Safin began to replay his recent defeat to the Chilean at Wimbledon, and for this reason he was unable to impose his game on him. The opponent outplayed the Russian, whose first serve was not going well, in many respects, mainly due to his signature forehand and accurate backhands along the line. The match was lost - 3:6, 5:7, 4:6, and with it, it seemed, the Russians' chances of reaching the quarterfinals were lost.
One can only guess what Igor Andreev was thinking when he took the court against Massu. In any case, the psychological advantage was clearly not on his side. However, from the very first minutes, the 147th racket in the world did not at all look like an outsider. In the first game, the Russian earned seven break points, the last of which he successfully converted. The first set ends in favor of the Russian - 6:2, the second - 6:1. It seemed that Massu was broken morally, but that was not the case. The next set is his. But physically Massu turned out to be exhausted by the tactics and pace proposed by Andreev. The end of the match came in the fourth set - 6:2, 6:1, 6:7, 6:4. The Russian tennis player brought his team the necessary point.
After the match, Russian captain Shamil Tarpishchev commented on the outcome of the match: “We have a great team, and the guys did everything they could. Tactically we played very correctly. We won, despite the fact that the court was not ours, and the support of the spectators was not on our side. It’s good that Andreev managed to win in the fourth set. Playing fifth would be too much of a challenge for him.”