The Intersport Arena of Linz was witness to the birth of a new star in tennis on Sunday: 18-year-old Juan-Martin Del Potro.
Argentina 2-0 up after Friday
Argentina came to Linz with their 2006 final loss to Russia in Moscow still in mind, and to renew their quest for the Davis Cup trophy.
This Davis Cup by BNP Paribas first round tie against Austria started off in the best manner for Argentina as the South Americans went 2-0 up on Friday without dropping a set. In the first rubber Stefan Koubek played a threatening first set before collapsing to Jose “Chucho” Acasuso. It was then the turn of Guillermo “Willy” Canas to take to the court versus the Austrian leader Jurgen Melzer.
The bookmakers had both teams at one point apiece on Friday night, but Canas saw it differently as he punished Melzer in straight sets to give his team a commanding lead ahead of the doubles. The Argentinean also used the tie to make his Davis Cup return following his ban for a positive drug test in February 2005.
Austrian chances kept alive with doubles
On Saturday, Argentina lined up Acasuso and Prieto, an experienced doubles team, but not as experienced as Melzer-Julian Knowles combination. The two Austrians, captained by Alexander Peya who had to jump in for an ill Gilbert Schaller, beat the Argentines in four sets, and kept their team and their country alive in tie.
Schaller was back on Sunday but it was Acasuso’s turn to sit a match out, as he was replaced by the 18-year-old rookie Del Potro. The Argentinean hopeful had a lot of pressure on his shoulders but was eventually able come up with the goods, playing an aggressive and ambitious fifth set to defeat Melzer and seal Argentina’s victory.
The final rubber, a dead one, was played between Canas and part-time captain Peya. Canas came out the victor, 46 61 64.
”Thrilled” with Del Potro’s performance
“We are very happy with the result, and obviously thrilled with Juan Martin Del Potro’s performance, he had a tough match versus Melzer and he did extremely well. Now we are going to celebrate a little bit and then we will start thinking about Sweden,” said a relieved Argentine captain Alberto Mancini.
“We are very disappointed, but Argentina proved that they are a very good team with a lot of depth,” Schallar said. “We now have to look ahead to an extremely important Play-off match in September to stay in the World Group.”
So Argentina advances to the quarters and Mancini is going to have his eyes trained on all the Swedish players from now on, in order to prepare his strategy for another challenge that he is surely going to want to take on.
Austria will have to wait until 11 April to find out who they will face off in September for the Play-off tie that could allow them to stay in the 16-nation elite.
But Juan-Martin Del Potro stole the show this weekend, and people will remember that on Sunday February 11, a star was born in Linz.