With the downfall of the Carlos Alcaraz’s withdrawal, positive for COVID a day before the debut, still hovering over the Madrid Arena atmosphere, Spain started the Davis Cup finals with a victory for Feliciano López (6-3 and 6-3 in 1h: 18) about the Ecuadorian Roberto Quiroz.
Feliciano, originally destined to play doubles with Marcel Granollers, started a marathon that was not planned, because in principle it will also close the day in the point in pairs. Without Roberto Bautista, injured on Tuesday, nor the exciting 18-year-old from Murcia, the captain Sergi Bruguera relied on the gallons of Toledo (five times champion) over the ranking of Albert Ramos (45th) and Pedro Martínez (60th), recruited urgently. The 40 years and the 104th place in the classification mattered little. The veteran took years off with a win.
“Yes, we can!” Shouted a small Ecuadorian parish in some sparsely populated stands start to cheer on Quiroz (29 years old and 291º), a regular in the second division of the circuit. But the Toledo, who debuted 18 years ago at Davis, knew how to handle the situation. In the first set, with serves that went up to 230 km / h (finished with 14 aces) and marching to the network to cut points and save energy, he broke for 3-1 and no longer let go.
In the second quarter, the break came 3-2, but Quiroz offered some resistance, pampering the energies of a tennis player who is going to be forced to reserve them. Fortunately, a second break came to 6-3. Ecuador still started six games and that is going to be fundamental. Spain has it raw with Russia (Sunday, 4:00 pm), and the two best seconds pass. Every set and every game is going to be gold.
Davis Cup results.