Fuente : Wimbledon
http://www.wimbledon.org

WIMBLEDON: The Pirates Have Landed

/noticias.info/ Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Late in the day, sitting in the stands and staring through a fresh glass of drink, you would be forgiven for thinking that a pair of pirates had just disembarked onto Court 13 with the intention of taking all gold they could lay their hands on. Dressed in similar outfits, with their flowing black hair held in place with matching headbands, Rafael Nadal and Feliciano Lopez set about conquering the Czech duo, Tomas Cibulec and David Rikl in front of a belligerent crowd, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (11-9).

It was a match characterised by youthful exuberance as much as team work and experience, over three fast-paced sets. Most of the games went with the serve, but Cibulec and Rikl were forced to work much harder for their rewards than the Spanish duo who did enough to steal the first set by taking the only break of serve at 4-2.

The Czechs continued to fight on, taking advantage of their superior experience and punishing Nadal when he found himself out of position, breaking him with a passing shot when he rushed the net unnecessarily. The Spaniards broke back quickly though and forced a tie-break with plenty of aggressive play in front of the net, teaming up side by side to produce a string of volleys at the net, which came to fruition when they needed just one of the three set points in the tie break to take the second set.

By the time the third set got underway, the crowd was enthralled, they were roused time and again by Nadal's displays of individualistic brilliance and unorthodox doubles technique. The Czech duo did well to match the Spaniards game for game and although they were nearly broken at 5-4 when the game went to deuce 4 times, they made it into the tie break.

Whereas the Spaniards had taken the previous tie-break with ease, the Czechs reorganised themselves to counter Nadal's propensity for hitting powerful winners by putting Lopez under increased pressure. Nadal however continued to pounce on anything going anywhere near him and at 3-2 he smashed a ball over into a nearby court to cheers from the crowd. Then at 7-6 he was gifted the opportunity to end it all, but couldn't send it back over the net. Eventually, a double fault put the Spaniards into the lead at 10-9 and as Lopez served Nadal crouched underneath to enable him to serve wide. When the return arrived, Nadal sprung back to his feet and buried the ball in the corner, with the crowd erupting into a well-deserved applause.


Written by Luis Lopez notas_de_prensa_archivo