Spain Takes First Historic Win on USA Soil 3-1, David Ferrer Clinches

Tennis Now

Rafael Nadal who? Spain took the victory at the Davis Cup quarterfinal against USA 3-1 without their No. 1 player to face France, who beat Germany 4-1 in the semifinals.

World No. 6 David Ferrer had a close match against the U.S. No. 1 Mardy Fish for a 7-5, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-6 (5) clinch on American soil for the first time in a historic event that took four hours, 11 minutes.

Captain Albert Costa said that he did receive a text message from Nadal offering his congratulations.

USA and Spain have a 5-5 all-time record. This marks the first time Spain won in the United States and the first time the USA lost at home since 2005, when they lost to Croatia.

The USA had never been able to come back from being down 2-0, but after the Bryan brothers took the doubles win there was a small hope for the Austin, Texas crowd. The USA will have to beat that record another year—the last time was in 1934.

Both captains, Costa and Jim Courier, decided against playing Feliciano Lopez and Andy Roddick for the dead rubber.

Costa admitted that he was glad that Spain didn't have to play the fifth rubber, saying, "Well, of course we knew that the last match will be difficult. But we had a lot of confidence also in Feliciano. But, of course, it's gonna be very difficult to beat Andy in the fifth match and the deciding match of the tie, no? We knew that. But we tried to win the first one, and we did it. So we are very happy for that. For us it is an historic win."

Fernando Verdasco made a cheeky comment about Lopez, who is a favorite of Judy Murray's: "Sorry, his name is not Feliciano, it's Deliciano." 

Noted.

Sections 46 and 47 were full of Spanish fans who traveled to the Frank Erwin Center to watch their team. They screamed, “Ole!” with the win as Ferrer’s teammates threw him in the air in celebration.

A crowd of 48,807 people were in attendance at the three-day event in Austin, Texas, the second-highest attendance since the 1990 World Group Final when the USA faced Australia in Florida.

On Sunday, Fish had a hard time converting break point opportunities, often being up love-40 on Ferrer and managing to shank the ball long. He had 18 total and only managed four steals off Ferrer’s serve. 

He lost in the fourth set at match point when he over-hit a cross-court forehand.

In contrast, Ferrer had 11 opportunities missed to break serve and only converted four, but they were on pivotal points. He lost the third set with 20 total errors, one of which was a net ball that lost him the set.

Both players showed their frustrations in the neck-to-neck game. The American smashed his racquet on the ground while Ferrer lobbed the ball high into the crowd.

Ferrer said in the press conference, "Well, the match, it was very tough, no? I had a lot of breakpoints down. I was very strong mental. You know, it was not easy. It was a very tension match. It's normal. Nothing else, no? The team, we are very happy because I can won here, here in the United States. It's a moment very, very special. "

Despite their great success on the hard courts, which was controversial because the Spanish Tennis Federation questioned the indoor-court's credibility, Costa confirmed that their semifinal match against France will be played on clay.

Costa said with a chuckle from his team, the press and himself, "On hard court? I don't think so, no. We had a lot of success, but as you know, we prefer clay."

The semifinal will take place September 16-18 in Spain. The last time Spain played France was in the 2010 quarterfinal, which they lost 5-0.

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