Spain stun Japan to set up men's final against Netherlands
A BNP Paribas World Team Cup that has already seen history made for South Africa in the quad World Group and Colombia in the Women’s World Group, could end with another historic achievement on Sunday after Spain stunned top seeds Japan.
Daniel Caverzaschi and Martin de la Puente secured the 2-1 semi-final win after a 4-6 6-1 (10-7) victory over Shingo Kunieda and Tokito Oda in the deciding doubles rubber of a contest that had drama from the start.
Runners-up to the Netherlands last year after reaching the men’s final for the first time, Spain will now play the same opponents in Sunday’s final after the defending champions beat USA 2-0.
Caverzaschi opened the contest with a 5-7 6-1 6-3 victory over world No. 9 Tokito Oda, while De la Puente failed to convert two set points in the first set of his head-to-head against world No. 2 Shingo Kunieda, eventually slipping to a narrow 7-5 6-3 loss to set up a grandstand finish at Vilamoura Tennis Academy.
“Right now I’ve only just finished so I'm without words,” said Caverzaschi. “I need to go and have a shower, stretch and then think about what happened. We knew we had chances but it was very difficult to win today. We've been playing well all week. Now it's time to celebrate with the rest of the team.
“The World Team Cup is something special,” he added. “Martin and I are very patriotic. We love playing for the country. I'm so glad that I managed to pull off such a great win in my singles match and Martin played so well in the second match, even though he lost. And now the doubles, it was such a tough battle and we fought well mentally. We did such a great job. So now it's time to celebrate tonight, but tomorrow we're going to prepare for the final and also prepare (to try and gain) revenge from last year.”
A year on from winning the men’s, women’s and quad singles titles in the same year for the first time, Netherlands are on track to repeat the feat after their 2-0 victory over USA.
With USA contesting their first World Team Cup semi-final since 2003, Ruben Spaargaren gave the Dutch the perfect start after beating Conner Stroud 6-0 6-0.
However, with Tokyo Paralympic silver medallist Tom Egberink still battling to recover full fitness after contracting Covid-19 two weeks ago, the world No. 6 fought his way to another three-set win in Vilamoura, eventually beating Casey Ratzlaff 6-2 2-6 6-4.
"It was was a big battle again today. He's a good player but I'd never played him before," said Egberink. "For me it's really hard to come back after what I had last week. It's hard to recover after three three-sets. I think I'm battling hard and that's not the way I normally play.
"The rest of the team did a really good job. I'm really happy with the way we are playing this year, the same as last year. So we hope to aim for the title again and try and give it all on Sunday."
While the men’s semi-finals proved dramatic for different reasons, there was something very familiar about the women’s semi-finals as Netherlands and Japan eased to 2-0 wins over Colombia and USA.
With Colombia contesting the World Team Cup women’s semi-finals for the first time, 32-time champions Netherlands were untroubled in their quest to reach another final, world No. 3 Aniek van Koot needing little time to beat Zuleinny Rodriguez Trujillo 6-0 6-0.
World No. 1 Diede de Groot made it three 6-0 sets for the top seeds, but Angelica Bernal provided much stiffer opposition in the second set before finally succumbing 6-0 7-5.
Last year’s bronze medallists USA went into their semi-final against Japan without the firepower of their No. 1 player Dana Mathewson, leaving former Roland Garros finalist Momoko Ohtani to beat Emmy Kaiser 6-1 6-2 before world No. 2 Yui Kamiji dismissed Shelby Baron 6-0 6-0.
Netherlands and Japan will now contest their seventh World Team Cup women’s final since 2001.