Roth Regatta

Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer along with Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez gave the victory to Spain in the Davis Cup for the second consecutive year. Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer won the single matches respectively; Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez won the double matches and they all gave a lesson of skills and demonstrated that Spain has many more talented players like Rafael Nadal. The victory over the Czech Republic team is the fourth one of the Spanish team since 2000 and they hav

e become the first nation since Sweden to win two consecutive Davis Cup titles. Nadal’s performance was much more livelier then that shown in the ATP World Tour finals tournament that was held one week before, and where he didn’t win any of the matches that he played just to go home empty handed. He first faced Tomas Berdych in the opening round and David Ferrer defeated Radek Stepanek, giving the victory to the Spaniards in the first round for singles. For doubles Fernando Verdasco and Feli

ciano Lopez gave a hard time again to Tomas Berdych and Radek Stapanek winning the match on doubles. The ending point was set again by Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer, winning both their single matches again facing Jan Hajek and Lukas Dlouhy. Nadal defeated Jan Hajek 6-3, 6-4 and Ferrer beat Lukas Dlouhy 6-4, 6-2 on the indoor clay. “First thing, you have to have good players,” Nadal said, referring to his team. “In Spain, we have a lot. Sure, last year was disappointing for me not to be the

re, but for sure the team was better. They play unbelievable and they won, so they did much better without me than with me.” Nadal’s great come back was on his favorite surface: clay. He doesn’t have such a good performance on hard surfaces or grass. Nadal missed the final of last year’s Davis Cup against the Argentinean team so he wanted to come back this year and make up for it, and he did it. For Stepanek this was a very complicated game since he is very conscious that the Spanish team is one of the best in the world, having a lot of talented players who are standing in the top positions. “That says everything—to win four times in nine years. It shows how strong Spanish tennis is in general,” Stepanek said. “The team is so strong, you have four players now in the team but you can build up a second team that is nearly as strong.” For Verdasco it was a great accomplishment to win the Davis Cup title; he was coming from a disastrous presentation in the ATP Masters tournament that was held in London one week before. Both Verdasco and Nadal lost all of the matches they played. For sure this victory gave Nadal the confidence that he had lost. Verdasco expressed that he felt very proud of being part of the Spanish Team and to play by the sides of such a talented group. Other Spanish players were congratulated by the team’s captain Albert Costa, who underlined the performance of Tommy Robreto and Juan Carlos Ferrero who also played in the Davis Cup. Spain is the sixth most successful team in the Davis Cup tournament with 108-year history after the United States (32 titles), Australia (28), France and Britain (9) and Sweden (7).