2 Responses to daviscup2002russia_france

1. Voo de Mar says:

   March 23, 2021 at 3:20 pm

   First Davis Cup triumph for Russia at the third time of asking – Russians lost the finals of 1994 (Sweden) and 1995 (USA) with Kafelnikov as the only player to participate in all those three finals.
   The Davis Cup ’02 final it’s the only case in the 102-year-old (at the time) DC history that in the 5th rubber a player came back from a 0-2 deficit in sets to win the contest! The match of two 20-year-old players, rising stars, lasted 4 hours 27 minutes, the stats (excluding BPs) without eight games of the 2nd set (83% in total)… Youzhny [32] was two points away from defeat at *4:5 (deuce) in the 4th set, earlier trailing 2:4 (0/15) in that set. Mathieu [36] finished the match in tears, mentally devastated – this loss actually made a huge impact on the rest of his career. He entered the final on a 10-match winning streak (titles in Moscow & Lyon), but for the remaining 15 years of his career, he was unable to replicate it, being known as someone who cannot cope with tight situations & loses dramatic matches quite often (finished his career with a negative record in five-setters and deciding 3rd set tie-breaks). We should not exclude that Youzhny having immortalised himself, paradoxically became a victim of that success and remains some sort of an underachiever given Slams and ATP events… Davis Cup lost its historic “best of five” format in 2018, for sixteen years after Youzhny’s famous victory, a situation like he had created, wasn’t repeated, so he’ll stay in the history books as someone who has done an unprecedented thing. Youzhny played a rubber in the Davis Cup final in 2007, that time being less successful.

   RUSSIA d. FRANCE 3-2 at Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy, Paris, FRA: Clay (Indoor)
   Marat Safin (RUS) d. Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
   Sebastien Grosjean (FRA) d. Yevgeny Kafelnikov (RUS) 7-6(3), 6-3, 6-0
   Nicolas Escude / Fabrice Santoro (FRA) d. Yevgeny Kafelnikov / Marat Safin (RUS) 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
   Marat Safin (RUS) d. Sebastien Grosjean (FRA) 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(11)
   Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) d. Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4

   

   From left: Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin, Mikhail Youzhny, Andrey Stoliarov & Shamil Tarpischev (captain)

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   August 30, 2024 at 8:38 pm

   Russia‘s route to the title: Switzerland 3-2, Sweden 4-1, Argentina 3-2*, France 3-2

   Points for the team:
   7 – Marat Safin
   4 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov
   1 – Mikhail Youzhny
   0.5 – Andrey Stoliarov

   * In the semifinal Kafelnikov and Safin lost to the Argentine pair (Arnold / Nalbandian) 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 17-19 after 6 hours 20 minutes – until 2013 it was the longest doubles match in history. The Russians saved a mini-match point at 4-all in the 3rd set, and on Safin’s serve they had two “tie” points leading 17:16 – prior to that game Safin hadn’t been broken! Safin got the deciding point defeating Nalbandian in the fourth rubber.

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