http://www.daviscup.com/news/matchreport.asp?id=14169
06 Apr 2007 - Small Sport Arena "Luzhniki", Moscow, Russia - Chris Bowers -
RUS v FRA
Mathieu puts visitors in front
There were only a couple of hundred blue-clad French fans, but they had the
strains of “Paulo, Paulo” chanting around the Luzhniki arena after one of
the shock results of the 2007 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas.
Paul-Henri Mathieu, whose greatest claim to fame is having lost the decisive
match of the 2002 Davis Cup final from two sets up, went some way to
rehabilitating himself by beating the then world No. 6 Carlos Moya in
the 2004 semifinals. Now he’s gone one better, beating the world No. 4
Nikolay Davydenko 26 62 61 75 to give France a highly unexpected 1-0 lead
against the Cup’s defending champions Russia.
“It was a fantastic win and I’m very happy,” said Mathieu, “but I don’t
want to take it out of context. The greatest victory would be to beat Roger
Federer at Wimbledon, and this wasn’t that, and I also felt the atmosphere
in the stadium was better when I beat Moya in Alicante than it was today.
But it’s still a great win for me, and I’m very happy.”
Davydenko dominates opening set
The “Moscoutaires” as the French fans have named themselves for this tie
(the English would be “Moscowteers”) must have been planning an early
dinner when Mathieu lost the opening set in just 34 minutes. He didn’t
just lose it, he was outclassed. Davydenko camped on his baseline, happy
to half-volley the occasional deep shots Mathieu produced, while Mathieu
was penned a good two metres behind his own line. The outcome was a set
that promised little for the visitors.
But two errors from Davydenko in the second game of the second set caused
him to drop his serve, and with it his whole confidence evaporated. Where
there had been confident hitting in the first set, there was suddenly a
mixture of errors and innocuous mid-court groundstrokes. That in turn
inspired Mathieu, who moved closer to his baseline and began hitting
his shots flatter, especially his two-handed backhand. The result was
a dramatic turnaround.
Davydenko dropped serve four times in five service games, conceding one
on a missed smash played without apparent pressure from inside his
service line. It was a remarkable demonstration of what happens to a
player when the belief suddenly disappears.
Mathieu withstands late Russian recovery
But in the fourth set, the Russian started to get back. He found his
range again, and after making good a 2-4 deficit, looked set to expose
Mathieu’s mental frailties in sight of victory. But Mathieu held firm
when serving at 4-5, broke for 6-5 when Davydenko’s unforced errors
returned, and then held firm in a long rally on the final point, which
ended when a Davydenko backhand went wide.
“I thought midway through the match that the clay court season had
come too early,” said Davydenko with a wry grin. “I realised I was
playing the match like a hard court match. It took me so long to get
used to the hard courts, but now it has taken me too long to get back
to clay. My backhand was really bad, and I blame my coach for that,
I’m not joking. We must find it again, because my backhand down the
line is normally a strong stroke, but it wasn’t there today.”
Instead of watching the second singles between Mikhail Youzhny and
Richard Gasquet, Davydenko left the arena to get some more practice
in. He said he’d like to play against Gasquet in Sunday’s reverse
singles, but understands that the way he played today won’t inspire
his captain Shamil Tarpischev to pick him.
For Mathieu, it represents a remarkable comeback after picking up an
injury at the Australian Open that kept him off the circuit for six
weeks. “Four weeks ago I wouldn’t have expected to be in the Davis
Cup team, but I am and I’m very happy.”
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