Nadal holds off Del Potro to win Davis Cup for Spain

Rafael Nadal

overcame a slow start and late surge by his opponent, the world no. 11 Juan Martin Del Potro, to win the first reverse singles match of on Sunday and give the Spaniards their third Davis Cup title in four years, and their fifth overall.

Second ranked Nadal beat 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6(0) in Seville to give the host nation an unassailable 3-1 lead over Argentina, who were looking to win their first ever Davis Cup title. The match lasted four hours and eight minutes.

“We gave everything, it was a very emotional victory at the end of a tough year,” Nadal said in the post-match interview. “Winning in this way, we are very grateful to all the people of Spain. It was the best atmosphere I have experienced in my career.”

On Sunday, it was Potro, who played on Friday for 4 hours and 43 minutes, who started fast off the blocks – using his blistering forehand to break down the Nadal defence. Potro won the first set by a 6-1 margin but even that took more than an hour.

Potro broke Nadal in the opening game of the second set and went 40-0 up on his own serve when the Spaniard made his move. Breaking back for 1-1, Nadal, who seemed to be hitting his shots without much depth or pace in the first hour, started finding the range with his forehand.

After missing a break point to break the Potro serve at 4-3, Nadal finally broke at 5-4 to win the second set 6-4. The third set was all Rafa as the effects of Friday’s marathon started to show on Potro. Moving sluggishly and hitting without his trademark brute force, Potro succumbed in the third set by 1-6, as the Spaniard won 16 of 17 service points.

Nadal broke Potro to open a 2-0 lead in the fourth set and at that point, it looked like the fight had gone out of the Argentine. But helped by the loud support of the thousands of Argentine fans who had descended on Seville for the final, Potro suddently found a second wind in his sails.

The Argentine blasted his ground strokes with accuracy and power to break back for 2-2. The pair exchanged breaks again for 3-3 and then Potro broke Nadal to serve for the set at 5-3.

Just when it looked like a fifth set was certain, Nadal managed to break back for 5-5 and break again to serve for the title at 6-5. Potro managed to break one last time to force the set into a tie breaker. That was where Nadal showed his superior fighting abilities.

The Spaniard won seven points in a row and ended the match with a forehand winner that sent him to the ground and his team into the air in jubilant celebrations.

The win will help Nadal salvage what has otherwise been a lacklustre year in which he only won one Slam title (the French Open) in between a six match losing streak to the new no. 1 player in the world – Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic now poses the same kind of problems for Nadal that the Spaniard has posed for Roger Federer. Federer has managed to put up a good fight and show his willingness to grind it out even when he was second-best. Nadal’s performance over the next few months will tell us just how hard and long he is ready to fight.