After 29 years, Czechs Manage to Reach Davis Cup Finals

Jaroslav NavratilThe Czech Republic managed to reach all the way to the Davis Cup finals for the first time in a total of 29 years when Radek Stepanek along with Tomas Berdych managed to go up against and beat Lovro Zovko and Marin Cilic with 6 – 1, 6 – 3, 6 – 4 which allowed them to open up a completely unassailable lead for 3 – 0 over Croatia on last Saturday.

Now they are going to travel to go up against Spain, who won in 2000, in 2004 and in 2008 for the final in December and they will most likely be playing on Clay. The Spaniards managed to take a lead over Israel on Saturday in Murcia with 3 – 0.

Jaroslav Navratil, the captain for the Czech team said that this was a truly unbelievable success for the country according to Croatian TV. It has been 29 years since they last made it to the finals, and the entire team is exceptionally proud of their accomplishment as they managed to put great performance into all three of the matches. The former Czechoslovakia managed to win the Davis Cup in the year 1980 by defeating Italy with a tennis team that was being led by Ivan Lendl. This time is the first ever time that the Czech Republic has reached all the way to thee finals.

The Czech doubles pair managed to win after 2 hours and 15 minutes worth of play in a contest that was not nearly as difficult as the singles matches were. Apparently it was really hard for the team to play in the dramatic matches during Friday's play, but the Czech players performed better, said Cilic, and they are congratulated for a win that was clearly well deserved.

On Friday, Stepanek had managed to put the visiting team ahead by defeating Karlovic with 6 to 7, 6 to 6, 7 to 6, 6 to 7, 16 to 14 in one heck of a marathon opener where the sum of the 82 games that were being played was the highest number in any Davis Cup rubber ever since the tiebreak was initially introduced back in the year 1989.

Even the record by Karlovic of 78 aces was not enough for the extraordinary match to be won. It had all of the fans on the edges of their seats while at the Zatika Arena, which is located in Porec, a northern Adriatic town. In the second set of singles rubber, it took 3 hours and 47 minutes in order for Berdych to defeat the 15th seed, Cilic, with 6 to 3, 6 to 3, 3 to 6, 4 to 6 and 6 to 3.

Photo Credits: http://www.daviscup.com/

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