TENNIS in DEPTH.

Captain Tito Vazquez has a huge decision to make ahead of the reverse singles on who might have the better chance against Nadal, who simply outclassed Juan Monaco on Friday. The current line-up sees del Potro take up the challenge with Nalbandian saved for the fifth rubber should it go down to the wire. After today’s performance however, there were mutterings of Nalbandian perhaps having the greater fight to take on Nadal, given del Potro’s knackered state after being run ragged by Ferrer in five sets. Good news for Argentina though: he “feels good”, he says.

An outstanding performance from David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank in Saturday’s doubles rubber has forced the 2011 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Final in Seville into a third day. Argentina’s scratch pairing embarrassed Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco into a 64 62 63 defeat, meaning the Final heads into Sunday’s first match between, as it stands, Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro with Spain leading 2-1. Nalbandian and Roland Garros doubles runner-up Schwank may have only ever played one tournament together back in 2008, but they still came into the match as slight favourites, largely due to the man from Cordoba, Nalbandian. A magical Davis Cup player, the 29 year-old pulled his best out of the bag for this match and was barely faultless with the solid support of his doubles specialist partner. “That’s Davis Cup,” said the veteran. “I really like it, I play better when I’m playing for my country and today we both played a great match from the beginning and it was unbelievable for us.”

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