Switzerland is tied with the Czech Republic after splitting a pair of singles rubbers on Friday. As expected, both Stanislas Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych take care of business.
Stanislas Wawrinka put host Switzerland ahead of the Czech Republic 1-0 in their first-round Davis Cup tie after handling Lukas Rosol 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Wawrinka needed one hour and 41 minutes to win the opening tie on the indoor hard court of Geneva.
Coming a strong showing at the Australian Open, where he lost to Novak Djokovic 7-5 in the fifth set of a fourth-round thriller, Wawrinka wasted no time taking control of this one. The Swiss donated serve once in the opening frame of play, but he more than made up for it with two breaks of his own–the second of which came at 5-4.
From there it was full steam ahead for Wawrinka, who held his serve the entire rest of the way. The world No. 17 surrendered a mere three service points in the entire second set before fighting off two break points in the third. He clinched victory with a final hold at 5-4.
The defending champions drew even when Tomas Berdych defeated Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-1 in two hours and 35 minutes. Berdych’s win gave the Czech Republic its first point of the weekend and ensured at 1-1 tie heading into Saturday doubles.
Laaksonen actually turned in a respectable performance in his first-ever appearance for Switzerland, and only the second and fourth sets were not competitive. The underdog Swiss missed one break chance in the opener and failed to save Berdych’s lone opportunity, so that made the difference.
An entertaining third set saw Laaksonen play his way into a tiebreaker after fighting off four early break points. To the surprise and delight of the home crowd, he took it seven points to five. That merely delayed the inevitable, however, as Berdych quickly raced through set four.
“I started solid the first two sets and was controlling the game, and then I had two break points in the first game of the third set but he just brought some really good first serves and was very hard to break,” said the sixth-ranked Czech. “After that I had a toilet break which gave me some time but it was just a case of calming down to get back to my rhythm. Once back on court, I felt much better and it showed in that fourth set.”
“I enjoyed it almost from the beginning,” added Laaksonen. “I was maybe a little nervous but the crowd was amazing and it was really nice to play out there. But it showed there are still many things for me to work on–return, serve, backhand, volley–basically everything.”
There is a lot more work to be done in this tie, which is essentially now a best-of-three situation.
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