http://www.daviscup.org/news/matchreport.asp?id=12286
07 Feb 2003
Grosjean Gives France 1-0 Lead in Bucharest
The time had come to perform. As the first rubber of the first round of the
Davis Cup by BNP Paribas between Romania and France was about to kick-off
Sebastien Grosjean and Adrian Voinea made their way on to the court in a
determined way. Ilie Nastase took his seat and the match began.
The first game was an example of the first two sets, Grosjean serving a
love game. He dominated, as he did throughout the set, hitting consecutive
winning forehands across the court. On the other side of the net, Voinea
was not able to focus. Indeed, the pressure was on him, with a home crowd
expecting a lot from this tie. Unfortunately, the number two Romanian was
not able to live up to his expectations. A break behind serving at 4-2,
Voinea once again lost his serve and then the first set 62.
The second set began as did the first. Grosjean served three consecutive
aces and once again won his game to love. Both players held their serve
until 3-4. Not much can be said about these first seven games other than
there were plenty of big serves and unforced errors. As the Romanian seemed
to be slowly getting back into the game, the Frenchman remained focused
and broke his opponent. Leading 5-3 and serving, Grosjean was not about to
let his advantage go. With one set point opportunity at 40-30, Grosjean
gained the second set, and was able to put France on the right track. His
main weapon? A devastating forehand that left Voinea on the back foot
eight times out of ten.
“I am playing a lot more focused than I used to. I have also made a point
to be very aggressive and offensive in my game. This I think was a problem
for Adrian,” Grosjean said, “although he has a very solid game. He likes
to stay back and defend his back court line.”
The third set witnessed two major changes: Voinea saw his confidence rise
with a number of winners, and the crowd came to life, cheering for their
player. Until then, Grosjean’s performance had been able to tame the
crowd, originally expected to be very loud and hostile. The expected
hostility never arose, but the enthusiasm certainly did. This created
a major change in Voinea’s body language. He started to take control of
the match, pushing the Marseille native to commit unforced errors. The
third set saw both players hold their serve until 5-5. At this point
Grosjean made the move and led 6-5, only to be broken by Voinea (for
the first time in the match) and concede a tie-breaker.
Tension was at its height as Grosjean failed to convert match point number
one, and two, and three. It was then Voinea’s chance with two set points.
But he was unable to take advantage. The fourth and final match point in
favour of the Frenchman was the one to clinch the match, the tie breaker
ending 12-10. The match ended three sets to love and Voinea’s racquet ended
smashed in the bin.
With France now leading the tie 1-0 the pressure is on Andrei Pavel, the
Romanian No.1, in the second singles rubber against Nicolas Escude.
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