The United States won back ground against holders Spain in the Davis Cup semi-final Saturday, with twins Bob and Mike Bryan beating Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers in the doubles to make the tie 2-1. The twins from California beat the Catalan pair 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, making for a thrilling Sunday to decide the tie on the Spaniards' home red clay in Gijon, northern Spain.
Buoyed by singles victories for David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro on Friday and by a festive home crowd, the Spanish team made the Americans - the world's top-ranked doubles team - work hard. "It was a battle. We came here to win and we kept the game alive," Bob Bryan said. "It wasn't pretty all the time, but a win's a win." "That was probably the toughest Spain team we've played," added Mike Bryan.
The Bryans - left-handed Bob and right-handed Mike - broke Spain twice to take the first set, but the Catalans fought back gutsily in the second, trading blistering cross-court rallies and sliced returns. They defended a string of break points to hold serve and in the third set hauled the Americans in from a 3-1 lead to 4-4, Granollers battling on despite a calf strain sustained in the second, for which he received medical attention.
Spain led early in the fourth set before succumbing to the Americans' hard volleys. It was the 20th Davis Cup victory for the Bryans, who also won gold at the London Olympics and the doubles at the US Open last week - a record 12th Grand Slam title for the pair.
They have lost only two of their total 22 Davis Cup matches. Spain had edged close to a sixth final in 10 years on Friday when they shrugged off the absence of Rafael Nadal to open a 2-0 lead. The United States - the most successful team overall in Davis Cup history with 32 victories - admitted they were not favourites when they came to Spain for the tie.
But under the captaincy of former Grand Slam-winner Jim Courier, they have chalked up back-to-back away wins in Switzerland (5-0), where John Isner shocked Roger Federer, and France (3-2), where he defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Spain have dominated the Davis Cup over the past decade, winning it five times, and are surfing a wave of 23 consecutive home victories.
World number five Ferrer has a chance to send Spain through to the final if he beats the six-foot, nine-inch (206-centimetre) Isner in the fourth game of the tie on Sunday afternoon. In the other semi-final, Argentina were 1-1 overnight against the Czech Republic in Buenos Aires. Tomas Berdych recovered from two sets to one down, and 1-4 behind in the fourth set, to stun Juan Monaco 6-1, 4-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 after world number eight Juan Martin del Potro beat Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Argentina have yet to win the tournament and were defeated by Spain in the 2008 and 2011 finals.
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