After a fantastic four-hour-29 minute battle, Czech No. 1 Tomas Berdych beat Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer 67(5) 63 26 64 75 to keep the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Play-off tie between the Czech Republic and Germany wide open. Berdych levelled the tie to 2-2.
At 5-5 in the fifth set, the high-level match could have gone either way. But then Berdych broke Kiefer’s serve and kept cool in the deciding game: after he had hit an ace the home crowd was in a frenzy.
“It was tough for me. Much tougher than my match on Friday against Tommy Haas,“ said Berdych. “I did not feel well in the morning. I had a sore throat. And that was the reason I lost track in the beginning. But I am more than happy to be through.“
“The loss is brutal. It was a high-level match. I tried to fight and fight but two, three points decided the match,“ Kiefer said. “I have to give credit to Berdych. He is one of the most promising players on the tour. He played unbelievable.“ Berdych has now won all of five of his five-set matches.
In the first set which lasted 62 minutes, Berdych got the better start. It took Kiefer nine minutes to win his first service game. Berdych lost just two points on his serve in the first couple of games, and in the fifth game he broke Kiefer for the first time. He broke the German for the second time in the seventh game to go 5-2 up.
But Kiefer came back strong, breaking Berdych’s serve twice to level the set. At 6-3 in the tiebreaker the German had three set points, and went on to win 7-5.
In the second set Berdych broke Kiefer in the fourth game when the German served a double fault at 15-40, and sailed pretty easily to a 5-2 lead. After 41 minutes the Czech No. 1 had the second set under his belt 63.
But at the beginning of the third set iefer again looked confident, with Berdych losing his service game to trail 0-2. In the fifth game Kiefer faced a break ball, the linesman called the point for Berdych, but chair umpire Kader Nouni overruled the point. Another critical situation for Kiefer happened in the seventh game. The German served three double faults but still won the game which gave him a 5-2 lead. Now Berdych had trouble with his serve. After two hours, 36 minutes Kiefer converted his second set ball and took a two-sets-to-one lead.
Kiefer seemed to have the match under control in the fourth set, breaking Berdych’s service in the seventh game. After that neither player could hold serve. “The first time I broke Kiefer back I was confident to win the whole thing. That was the key,“ said Berdych.
With no service breaks at 5-5 in the final set, the match could have been won by either nation. But in the next game Kiefer lost his service to love. In his serving game Berdych stayed calm and levelled the tie.
Berdych sees a good chance for his countryman Tomas Zib against Tommy Haas in the decisive fifth rubber. “Tommy has played two five-setters and he does not like to play somebody who is not so high in the ranking. So I am very confident.“
source : daviscup.com