Sports Thread #1 for 11/26/08: Beleated Congrats To Heroes Verdasco, Lopez and Spain In Their Defeat of Argentina (Davis Cup Final Review)

(Photo from daviscup.com) Jubilee for Spain as they win the Davis Cup on the road, and without Rafael Nadal

Make no bones about it, this was another memorable Davis Cup Final for the ages. And despite the fact that it didn't come to a deciding rubber, it was nevertheless a joy to watch.

That's of course, if you were a neutral or, even better, a Spaniard.

Because of you were an Argentine that day, it was, and still is, a period of national misery.

Without Rafael Nadal, Spain looked destined to remain at two Davis Cup titles, as their counterparts looked poised to capture their first international championship in the city of Marta Del Pata. And that outcome seemed inevitable when David Nalbandian scored his 17th Davis Cup tie victory with a comprehensive beating of David Ferrer in the opener. Ferrer, who whenever he plays Nalbandian usually outworks and frustrates him into defeat (hence Ferrer's 6-3 head to head advantage coming into their match), had nothing, and showed the form that lead to him leaving the Top 10 this year.

Nalbandian's straight set win represented the same belief that almost all pre-tie predictions had stated: an Argentine celebration of epic proportions on either Saturday or Sunday.

And that seemed to still be the future outcome after the first set of the second rubber, when young sensation Juan Martin Del Porto took the first set against the erratic Feliciano Lopez.

But the match, and the tie, turned on its head when Lopez stepped up his game in the second set, and won the tiebreaker seven points to two to even the match. Then, fatigue from a long season started to diminished the energy and quality of play from this year's youngest entrant of the ATP's Top 10. As Lopez leveled increased, del Potro succumbed into malaise. And when Lopez won the third set tiebreak to go up two sets to one, it signaled the direct turning point of the entire weekend.

Lopez won the fourth set and the match, and no aura of inevitability was to be felt the rest of the weekend for the rabid Argentine fans who were out of control throughout the tie with their vehement exclamations to the country that formerly ruled their land.

(Photo from Setanta Sports) Despair etched on the face of both David Nalbandian and Augustin Calleri as Argentina blows their chance to win their country's first David Cup

The doubles match was the weekend's real decider, as Nalbandian failed to gel with Agustin Calleri, giving the lefty partnership (and close friendship) of Lopez and Fernando Verdasco victory in four sets to put the Nadal-less Spanish one victory away from their first final's title away from home.

And Verdasco granted that delightful wish for his country, clinching the tie in the first reverse singles rubber in a five set duel of nerves and attrition over Jose Acasuso.

Demoralized indeed was Acasuso, who blew a two sets to one lead and failed to bring the tie to a deciding fifth match where Nalbandian would have been the clear favorite against Lopez, the unexpected hero of the tie. And the talented shotmaker wanted to console Acacuso, but the defeated player wanted none of that at all, walking off the court in obvious frustration and disgust.

The Argentine crowd, boisterous all weekend long as if the World Cup Final was taking place under their eyes, was still in stunned silence over what they had witnessed. It was for them a tie, because of the absence of the number one player, coupled with the other fact that it was on their home soil, that seemed destined to be there's.

But destiny brought rapture to Verdasco, Lopez, and Spain instead. “This is the most beautiful day of my life,” said Verdasco, after he emerged from the surge of red bodies that had piled onto the court to embrace their hero. “This is the most important match and win of my life. I will always remember this. It’s like winning a Grand Slam.”

It was the third Davis Cup title, becoming the seventh nation to reach that lofty feat. And it was one made sweeter not only by doing it on the road for the first time ever, but for the presence of unexpected protagonists filling in for their usual leading man.

(Photo from DavisCup.com)