Date:23/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052353202100.htm

Sport - Tennis

Argentina crashes out

Dusseldorf: Argentina’s dreams of successfully defending the World Team Cup ended on Wednesday when it lost a tight rubber against a resilient U.S. team.

After splitting the singles rubbers on Tuesday, the Americans wrapped up the tie 24 hours later when Wayne Odesnik and Bobby Reynolds edged past Lucas Arnold Ker and Sebastian Prieto 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-7.

In the other group tie, Sweden swept aside the challenge of the Czech Republic 3-0.

Robin Soderling and Thomas Johansson teamed up to dispatch Michal Tabara and veteran Pavel Vizner 6-4, 7-5 in the doubles.

The match between Sweden and the United States will decide which nation will advance to Saturday’s final.

In the Blue Group, Russia won a consolation point against Spain after Mikhail Youzhny and Dmitry Tursunov defeated Feliciano Lopez and Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4.

In the group’s other tie, Italy notched up two wins to reverse an overnight deficit against Germany for a 2-1 victory. Simone Bolelli squeezed past Nicolas Kiefer 7-6(5), 7-6(0) before combining with Potito Starace to beat the German doubles pairing of Philipp Petzschner and Christopher Kas 2-6, 6-3, 10-4.

Other results:

At Portschach (Hypo Group International): Second round: Nikolay Davydenko bt John Isner 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3; Juan Monaco bt Jiri Vanek 6-2, 6-2; Andreas Seppi bt Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-1; Jurgen Melzer bt Robin Haase 6-3, 4-6, 6-2; Igor Kunitsyn bt Blaz Kavcic 6-1, 6-4; Robby Ginepri bt Olivier Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

At Casablanca (Grand Prix Hassan II): Quarterfinals: Julien Benneteau bt Oscar Hernandez 6-3, 5-2 retired; Agustin Calleri w/o Younis El Aynaoui. At Strasbourg (Strasbourg International): Quarterfinals: Anabel Medina Garrigues w/o Flavia Pennetta; Chan Yung-Jan bt Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 6-2.

At Istanbul (Istanbul Cup): Quarterfinals: Agnieszka Radwanska bt Andreja Klepac 1-6, 6-2, 6-4; Akgul Amanmuradova bt Nadia Petrova 7-6(0), 1-6, 6-4; Tsvetana Pironkova bt Olga Govortsova 7-6(4), 7-6(2). — Agencies