France beat Spain in Davis Cup Quarters

For the first time in 87 years, nine time winner France have beaten defending champion Spain in the quarterfinals of the 2010 Davis Cup.

After an opening day 2-0 lead with both the singles matches under their belt, the Frennch team started the doubles rubber with extreme confidence.

The French pair of Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra struggled for four sets before prevailing 6-1, 6-2, 6-7(6), 7-6(5) against the Spanish duo of Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez.

After the thrilling victory, Llodra said - "Today it was too good on the court. When I started playing tennis, my dream was to play in the French team. When I was 11 years old, I saw Guy Forget and Henri Leconte in Davis Cup in Lyon when they won against U.S.A. and, in my head, you know I said one time in my life I want to be like this and today it was amazing."

France now meet the winner of the tie between Argentina and Russia. Argentina leads the tie 2-1 with the second day's doubles rubber going in favour of the Argentinian team. David Nalbandian's replacement, Eduardo Schwank teamed up with Horacio Zeballos to beat the Russian pair of Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Kunitsyn 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-1.

"We are really happy as this was a very important point for Argentina," said Zeballos. "I am really good friends with Schwank and we were confident as we are both good doubles players and had played together in the Pan American Games where we won."

France gets 2-0 lead against Spain in Davis Cup

World no. 35 Llodra handed over a second shocking defeat of the day to Spain in the second quarterfinal match of the Davis Cup by defeating the world no. 10 Fernando Verdasco with a 7-6(5) 6-4 6-3 7-6(2) scoreline. Llodra came back from a set down in the match and earned a relatively easy victory in three hours and 25 minutes. Both Gael Monfils and Michael Llodra won their respective matches and gave France a commanding 2-0 lead over Spain in the quarterfinal matches, being played here in Clermont-Ferrand, France. 

After losing the first set in a tie-break, Llodra bounced back brilliantly and won the next two sets. Verdasco fought well till the end but could not maintain the momentum in the key moments of the match and finally lost to Llodra in four sets. 

Re-visit the moments of this clash with TennisEarth! 

After the match, Llodra said, “anything can happen in Davis Cup. Today it was a good atmosphere on the court and I wanted to play my best tennis. It was perfect. I knew before the match that, on this surface, if I played aggressive then Fernando might miss some shots.

Monfils gives France 1-0 lead against Spain in Davis Cup

Monfils easily won the first two sets on an easy note, but lost next two to make it a stiff contest in France’s quarterfinal match against Spain. Finally, Monfils defeated the Spaniard David Ferrer in a five-set match that saw many interesting moments. 

First set went into a tie-breaker, as both the players failed to break each other’s serve. Monfils kept on pouring the pressure and wrapped up the first set with a 7-6 (3) score in a tie-breaker. 

The second-set saw the complete submission of the Spaniard, as Monfils easily won it by breaking Ferrer on two occasions with a 6-2 scoreline. 

Re-visit the thrilling moments of this contest with TennisEarth commentary!

Monfils was easily surging ahead in the match, but he lost his concentration in the third set and also lost next two sets in a row. Finally, the match went into the final set where Monfils got the early break in the second game and maintained that lead till the end to wrap up the match with a 7-6 6-2 4-6 5-7 6-4 scoreline.

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