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Tennis
Commanding win for Czech Republic
OSTRAVA (CZECH REPUBLIC), FEB. 10. Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic defeated Andre Sa 6-1, 6-2, leading his team to a 4-1 victory over Brazil in their World Group first-round Davis Cup tie on Sunday.
Ulihrach broke Sa's serve in the second game of the first set and allowed him to win only one game of the whole set. In the second set, Ulihrach was leading 5-1, but failed to win three matchpoints, allowing Sa to lower the score to 5-2. But in the last game Ulihrach did not loose a single point, winning the set 6-2.
In the first singles match of the day, Brazil's Flavio Saretta beat the Czech Republic's Jan Vacek 6-1, 7-6 (6). It was Vacek's first Davis Cup match in his career.
The Czech Republic advances to the next round to face the winner of another first-round encounter between defending Davis Cup champion France and the Netherlands, in a tie scheduled to be played in April.
Argentina shocks Australia
In Buenos Aires, Last year's runner-up Australia was shocked by Argentina here on Saturday when its experienced doubles pair Todd Woodbridge and Wayne Arthurs went down to Guillermo Canas and Lucas Arnold 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 10- 8.
The home pair won to seal the fate of the Australians who faced a monumental task after losing both the opening singles on Friday.
It was the first time in the history of the competition that Argentina had come up trumps against Australia. In the quarterfinals, it will face the winner of the tie between Croatia and Germany, which stood 2-1 in Croatia's favour after Saturday's play.
The doubles was held up by rain showers and finally went ahead with a persistent drizzle making play difficult. The Australian pair got off to the better start pocketing the opening set 6-4. But with Arthurs in particular struggling with his service, the home team struck back to take a two sets to one lead.
In the fourth set both Arnold and Canas lost their serves as the Australians struck back to level two sets all. The deciding set could have gone either way as it went the distance. But at 9-8, the Argentinians moved to three match points on the Arthurs serve.
The visitor saved the first, but Arthurs netted on the second to end the tie. The Argentinians are back in the elite world group after a ten-year absence and were fortunate to come up against an Australian side deprived of top players Lleyton Hewitt, Mark Philippoussis and Pat Rafter.
Other results:
At Metz (France): France leads Netherlands 2-1. Paul Haarhuis/Sjeng Schalken (Ned) bt Cedric Pioline/Fabrice Santoro (Fra) 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.
At Birmingham: Britain, Sweden level at 2-2. Tim Henman/Greg Rusedski (Bri) bt Jonas Bjorkman/Magnus Larsson (Swe) 7-6 (7-1), 2-6, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3; Thomas Enqvist (Swe) bt Tim Henman 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
At Moscow: Russia leads Switzerland 2-1. Yevgeny Kafelnikov/Marat Safin (Rus) bt Roger Federer/Marc Rosset (Sui) 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (0-7), 6-2.
At Zaragoza (Spain): Spain leads Morocco 2-1. Alex Corretja/Juan Balcells (Esp) bt Karim Alami/Hicham Arazi (Mor) 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4.
At Zagreb (Croatia): Croatia leads Germany 2-1. Goran Ivanisevic/Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) bt David Prinosil/Michael Kohlmann (Ger) 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.
At Ostrava (Czech Republic): Czech Republic bt Brazil 3-0. Jiri Novak/David Rikl (Cze) bt Andre Sa Alexandre Simoni (Bra) 6-4, 6-3, 7-5.
At Oklahoma City: United States bt Slovakia 3-0. James Blake/Mardy Fish (U.S.) bt Jan Kroslak/Karol Beck (Slo) 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4.
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