Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/117483
THE LONG GAME Tomas Berdych and Lukas Rosol celebrate winning an epic doubles contest when Milos Raonic sealed victory against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez with a Samprasesque jump smash, before being mobbed by his jubilant teammates. ���It���s something that we should all be very proud of,��� said the Canadian No. 1 of sending his team through to the quarterfinals. ���Something I hope [that] resonates into not only our team but also tennis in Canada.��� Defeat for Spain, seven-time finalists between 2000 and 2012, meant that Alex Corretja���s men need to win their play-off on September 13-15 if they are to maintain their 17-year-stay in the top tier of the competition. Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez couldn���t prevent Spain���s first opening round loss since 2006 Tomas Berdych and Lukas Rosol���s record-breaking 64 57 64 67(3) 24-22 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli in the World Group first round is by far the longest Davis Cup match in history. John McEnroe defeated Mats Wilander 97 62 15-17 36 86 in the previous longest Davis Cup match, prevailing in six hours and 22 minutes in the 1982 World Group quarterfinals between USA and Sweden. Also the second longest recorded match of all time, the match is still dwarfed by the first round encounter between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at 2010 Wimbledon, which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes. Despite its duration, the rubber is only the sixth longest in terms of games The clock marks an end to the second longest match of all time played in a Davis Cup rubber with 91. The longest is 122 games, also in a doubles match, between Americans Stan Smith and Erik Van Dillen and Patricio Cornejo and Jaime Fillol of Chile. Prior to the introduction of the tiebreak, Smith and Van Dillen lost a 76-game second set but mustered the energy to win 79 37-39 86 61 63 in the 1973 American Zone final. Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, had cause to be buoyant after continuing the momentum from his fourth Australian Open triumph by heading straight to Belgium to put in another rewarding shift for his country. The world No. 1 defeated Olivier Rochus 63 62 62 in the second rubber as Serbia went on to achieve an unassailable 3-0 lead and reach the World Group quarterfinals for a fourth year running. Argentina and France also ensured their quarterfinal return, not to mention a mouth-watering sixth meeting in Davis Cup, after both recorded emphatic 5-0 first round showings. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga gave new French captain Arnaud Clement the perfect start as the hosts went on to defeat Israel in Rouen, while Juan Monaco won two singles rubbers as Argentina defeated Germany in the first round for the second straight year. It was tougher going for USA, who had to fend off a late resurgence from Brazil in Jacksonville as the visitors made the most of their first World Group tie in nine years. Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares became just the third pair to defeat Bob and Mike Bryan in a Davis Cup doubles rubber as Brazil forced USA, and Sam Querrey in particular, to fight through a deciding fifth rubber to guarantee their passage in the competition. ���It���s always exciting to win a fifth and deciding match anywhere,��� Querrey said after beating Thiago Alves. ���I was thrilled I could help the guys out. It���s a team thing. We���re all moving on to the next round.��� In Turin, Croatia was the victim of Italy���s first World Group win in 15 years after Fabio Fognini overcame flu to win the deciding rubber, while Austria slipped to a 3-1 defeat to Kazakhstan in Astana. The latter���s triumph was one of the more remarkable of the weekend. Though Kazakhstan had also reached the quarterfinals of the World Group in 2011, they did so this time devoid of their top player Mikhail Kukushkin, who is still recovering from a double hip operation, or indeed a player ranked inside the top 150. ���This is such a big and important win, not just for our Davis Cup team but for the whole country,��� beamed Kazakh captain Dias Doskarayev. His star man of the weekend, world No. 163 Andrey Golubev, made the difference with crucial singles wins against Andreas Haider-Maurer and Jurgen Melzer. ���Davis Cup is not about the rankings,��� said Golubev, simply. ���It���s just about playing for your country.��� Stanislas Wawrinka spent 11 hours and 57 minutes on court for Switzerland ITFWORLD SPRING 2013 9