Agencies
Melbourne, March 6: The United States secured their place in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup with a 3-1 win against Australia here Sunday, after John Isner fought off a late challenge from Bernard Tomic to win 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-2) here.
After cruising through the first two sets with ease, the big serving American had silenced the crowd and looked to put the rubber away in straight sets, but a resilient and injured Tomic battled his way through the third, and took a rare breakpoint opportunity to extend the match.
Tomic was good during his service games in the fourth set. But then so was Isner and the set petered to a tie-breaker and it was Isner’s powerful serve that swung the momentum in his favour and he won the set easily. Overall, he hit 49 aces in the match to Tomic’s 11.
The win wrapped up a 3-1 victory in the tie for the US. They will now host the winners of Croatia and Belgium in July. Team captain Jim Courier said it was important to get the win playing away from home, and praised Isner’s ‘breathtaking’ performance on serve.
Isner, the World No.11, said wrapping up the tie in four matches was a great relief for team US. “It was tough no doubt,” said the 6’10” American. “Thankfully we managed to close out the matches when the opportunities arose.
Elsewhere Novak Djokovic suffered his first Davis Cup defeat in five years as Serbia slipped 1-2 to Kazakhstan while Andy and Jamie Murray gave defending champions Great Britain a 2-1 lead over Japan.
World No. 1 Djokovic and 39-year-old Nenad Zimonjic lost their doubles rubber Saturday to Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov in Belgrade in the first round tie. The 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 scoreline gave Kazakhstan a huge advantage before the reverse singles.
“Kazakhstan’s quality was extraordinary today (Saturday). They were better in crucial moments,” admitted Djokovic after the match. “But we know what we have to do, we know how to prepare for the third day.”
In Birmingham, the Murray brothers edged Britain closer to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win over Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka and Yakutaka Uchiyama.
It was a fifth win in five Davis Cup outings for the Murrays who didn’t face a breakpoint during their match Saturday.
Andy, now can close out the match when he faces World No. 6 Kei Nishikori in the first reverse singles Sunday. Andy has won five of the six meetings between the two.
“I played well against him last year. I played him a couple of times. He’s ranked six in the world, so he’s one of the best,” said Murray. “It’s obviously going to be extremely tough.”
Meanwhile Italy also reached the last 16 when Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi defeated Marco Chiudinelli and Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 for a 3-0 win over Switzerland without Roger Federer or Stan Wawrinka.
