Berdych won the first set against Marat on a tie-break, and is currently a break up in the second.

Safin seems to have converted none of his 9 (!) breakpoints ... although Berdych also had 7 and only converted the one.

I really don't understand why Russia doesn't have Davydenko playing singles. :shrug:

Now it's 10 unconverted breakpoints for Marat ...

C'mon Safin!

Safin won the third set and is now a break up in the fourth. He did a similar thing against Baghdatis at the AO only to collapse in the final set so hopefully Berdych will still win this - I prefer Safin, but want the Czechs to win this tie.

Why don't Russia play Davydenko for singles rubbers anyway? He has a pretty commanding H2H lead over Berdych if I remember right - 5-0 or something.

Not playing Davydenko was foolish IMO. Mayeb somethign has gone on behind the scenes :shrug:

Are there any live streams for the DC guys?

Hi SB - I thought that too, but who are we to doubt Tarpischev? Safin's currently serving for the match in the fifth - never in doubt. :P

I only found one stream but it's stopped working already. The live scores on www.daviscup.com however are more informative than the usual ones, giving a bit of info about how the point was won - forehand error, backhand winner etc.

Safin up a break in the fifth - looks like he's about to win a crucial point for Russia.

Still, I think playing Davydenko only in the doubles could be a mistake. However, Tarpischev has made a lot of gambles over the years, and mostly they have paid off. So we'll have to wait and see.

For now, it looks as though Marat will win this one, now serving for the match at 5-4; but it's only one break, so we shouldn't count Berdych out until it's over. But the scoreline suggests that he ran out of steam after the first two sets.

Looks like Nadal is about to break against Kiwi. :(

Safin saves another break point - he's now saved 18 out of 19 for the match - with an ace, apparently. Then he earns match point - and takes it.

The first point goes to Russia.

:clap: Marat :clap:

Kiwi holds off a number of break points, and holds. :clap:

He's now saved all of Nadal's 9 break points - but he also didn't convert either of his two chances. Still, good to see him hanging in there.

Hi Wise, yeah I guess the captain with have his reasons. Safin seems to be playing much better than expected here. :blink:

Cheers for the link :ok: shame it's gone down!

Tarpischev is a DC captain I have huge respect for-as I said before the match he will have good reasons for not playing Davy-presumably he didn't adjust to clay as well as Safin did-and remember Davy is probably emotionally exhausted after his DC win.

Although if we go to a 4/5th rubber I would imagine Davy will be sent out for the singles......

Andreev lost tamely against Stepanek. Playing him instead of Davydenko was a mistake IMO.

So it is Russia 1, Czech Republic 1. I am beginning to fancy the underdogs here ...

Rafa had an easy victory against Kiwi. Now Kohly has the difficult task of getting a point against Ferrer ... :pray:

Donut King leads T Johansson 2 sets to 1.

Kohly up 2-0 with an early break! Now consolidate please and hold on to it ... :pray:

Wow, I realyl respect Stepanek but moreso on grass and hard. I didnt; think his game woudl suit clay, and I thought Andreev was supposed to eb good on it.

Ferrer got the break back. :(

3-3 in the first.

That is so annoying from Andreev. I hate Stepanek he is such a Dickhead on court.

GO FERRER!!!! :yahoo:

Kohly won the first on a tie-break. :clap:

But Ferrer won the second. :(

Ferrer a double break up in the third :D :D :D

WTF is Jose Acasuso doing? Is he injured? He's currently 0-6, 4-6, 0-5 down to Soderling - on clay. :crazy1:

Ferrer now two sets to one up on Kohlschreiber and Roddick two sets up in a tight match with Llodra.

Go Kohly :D

Blake won a five-set thriller, by the sounds of it, against Mathieu to make it 2-0 for the USA. Kohly sadly lost his match against Ferrer, and Germany now face an almost impossible task at 0-2. The other ties are split at 1-1, Soderling overcoming Acasuso to make up for Johansson's loss against Nalbandian, and Andreev going down tamely against Stepanek, as already mentioned.

The Blake vs Mathieu match was very good and both deserved the match. Mathieu got unlucky that Blake played 4 or 5 very good points from 4-5* 15-40 down in the 5th set....

Well done, Blake! :yahoo:

I'm glad to see he seems to have broken his 5-set jinx. I think that's three of the last four 5-set matches that he's won, now.

Want USA to win the tie......

But GO CLEMDRA in the doubles!!!!

Bryan/Bryan win the set 9-7 in the breaker.

Llodra is the best player on court right now-it's just a shame that Clement is the worst.

Clemdra won 5 games in a row to lead 6-7 7-5 3-0* :)

Clemdra leading 6-7(7) 7-5 6-3 :)

Clemdra repeated their Wimbledon victory over the Bryans with a 6-7(7) 7-5 6-3 6-4 victory :)

That's 9 out 11 times Llodra has beaten the Bryans.

Well done to Clement/Llodra on taking the doubles. Now, Blake needs to come through with another singles victory to take the tie.

Good victory for France over the Bryans. Does anyone know whether Gasquet is going to play today, or is he out of the whole tie? Whoever plays, it looks like a tough one for France though.

Russia has put forward Davydenko for the singles rubber against Berdych. They are currently tied at one set a piece, and Kolya is serving to take this to a tie-break.

Should Davydenko lose this, I wonder whom the Russians will bring out to play against Stepanek - Youzhny or Safin?

Berdych won the third set tie-break. :o

After all of us saying that Tarpischev should have played Davydenko on the first day, now watch him lose! :o

Though I still hold that he would have won against Stepanek - or at least put up more of a fight than Andreev did!

Come on, Kolya ...

Davydenko breaks Berdych and will now serve for the fourth set.

Berdych retired in the fifth set.

Not sure what the reason is - but Berdy has been looking like he runs out of steam in long matches (even in three-setters), so I can't say I'm overly surprised that this went Davydenko's way.

So Russia is through - though no doubt not in the manner they would have preferred.

Apparently Berdych rolled his ankle, so it wasn't due to exhaustion. A pity though, when the fifth set was just getting started. :(

Did you know that Berdych has the best record in 5 sets of all the currently active players.

It's 9-2....and before this week it was 9-0.

That's impressive. I never thought that he got tired all that easily before this year - but it seems to me he hasn't done so well hanging in tough matches in these past few weeks.

But obviously I did injustice to him by thinking that this was the reason for him withdrawing. I like Berdych a lot as a player, actually, but would like to see him step it up a bit and really challenge for the big titles.

Meanwhile, Safin seems to be losing to Dlouhy in the dead rubber :doh: He's a set down, and facing break point ... saved it, though.

Safin loses 6-3 6-3 to Dlouhy in the dead rubber ... :rolleyes:

And Nalbandian, the man who cannot win from being ahead, wins the first set against Söderling, but then goes 5-1 down, with Sod serving for a breadstick. Nalbandian is fighting in this game though, having a number of break points - but it's back to deuce. Now set point for Söderling - I have a feeling this match is going to last for a while ...

Soderling is beating Nalbandian 4-6 6-1 6-4 2-0 :blink: :blink: :blink:

My feeling that this one could take a while has been confirmed ... Nalby currently leading 8-7 in the fifth (on serve). :blink:

Meanwhile, Kiwi managed to avoid a whitewash for Germany by winning the fifth (dead) rubber in two sets against Lopez.