The Spanish Davis Cup team will seek this Saturday to seal the direct ticket to the Davis Cup Finals 2022, after finishing the first day with 2-0 on the scoreboard against Romania, in a series played at the Puente Romano Tennis Club in Marbella. Roberto Bautista and Carlos Alcaraz prevailed with solvency in the individual duels. Now, Sergi Bruguera’s men will dispute the first match point with the duel of doubles, with Alejandro Davidovich and Pedro MartÃnez.
The first day of the series between Spain and Romania in the Davis Cup by Rakuten Qualifiers, which is being played in Marbella, has gone as expected. The host team fulfilled its role as favorite and just needed a little more than two and a half hours of play to put the 2-o on the scoreboard, with the individual victories of the number one and two of the team captained by Sergi Bruguera.
Roberto Bautista had a placid start against young Romanian player Boitan, while Carlos Alcaraz held his own against number one rival Marius Copil in his first Davis Cup match. The one from El Palmar showed temperance and dominated the nerves of the debut, especially at the end of the match when his rival pressed the rest. With the two points in the Spanish locker, Spain will try this Saturday to seal the ticket directly to the final phase of the competition with the match that will open the day and for which two other debutants are called: Alejandro Davidovich and Pedro MartÃnez.
Both face the match in a special way when playing the Davis Cup with Spain, especially in the case of the former, who plays at home. Pedro MartÃnez also arrives at a great moment in this tie. The Valencian joined the Spanish Davis Cup team to cover the loss of doubles player Marcel Granollers and has just won his first ATP tournament a few days ago with his victory in Chile and debuted as a world top-50 player.
Opposite, will be the Romanian couple, formed by Nicolae Frunza and Horia Tecau and who face the match to life or death. Tecau, 37, is the team’s specialist in doubles, became the second world pair and has returned to the competition to defend the colors of his country in this tie against Spain.
One step away from the Davis Cup finals
The doubles match will start this Saturday from 11 in the morning, with the two couples indicated, although the captains reserve last minute changes. In the event that the series was not resolved, the other two individual matches would remain to be played, in which the number one of each team would face each other and, later, the second two. Although, this fifth game could not be played if the tie had been resolved with the third or fourth duel of the series.
In addition, this Saturday will be special at the Puente Romano Tennis Club, since not only is Spain expected to seal the ticket to be in the final phase of the Davis Cup, but there will also be a tribute to the great pioneer of Spanish tennis, Manolo Santana , who passed away last December. Although born in Madrid, he was always closely linked to Marbella, where at the end of the 70s he created the tennis club through which great figures have passed.
