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Stepanek, Berdych put Czechs back in Davis final
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Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek put defending champion Czech Republic into the Davis Cup final by beating Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq and Horacio Zeballos in the doubles in Prague yesterday.
World No. 5 Berdych and US Open doubles champion Stepanek defeated the Argentines 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, giving the Czechs an unassailable 3-0 lead in their semifinal and a place in their third final in five years.
They will face either Canada or Serbia on November 15-17. That tie in Belgrade was tied 1-1 after Friday’s singles.
The Czechs’ all-time best doubles pairing with a 13-1 record were playing together for the first time this season and, after winning their singles matches on Friday, looked more at ease than the Argentines with the faster play on the hard court at Prague’s O2 Arena.
The Czech Republic also defeated Argentina in Buenos Aires in last year’s semifinals on its way to lifting the Cup for the first time since Czechoslovakia won it in 1980.
The other semifinal looks set to be more closely contested, despite top-ranked Novak Djokovic’s dominant performance on Friday.
Djokovic bounced back from his loss to Rafael Nadal in last Monday’s US Open final by routing Vasek Pospisil 6-2, 6-0, 6-4 to give Serbia a 1-0 lead in Belgrade. But in the best match of the day, Milos Raonic served 34 aces to outlast Janko Tipsarevic 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 in a duel lasting 4 hours, 11 minutes.
Raonic saved a match point when trailing 4-5 in the fifth set, and then used four aces in five points to finally serve out the match. “It’s great to come back from 1-2 down,” Raonic said. “It’s important to get through these types of things. I was serving really well and that kept me alive.”
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