Nadal, Ferrer complete Spain’s sweep of Czechs
BARCELONA, Spain (AP)—Spain lifted the Davis Cup for the second straight year on Sunday after completing a 5-0 victory over the Czech Republic in the final.
Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer both won singles matches at the Palau Sant Jordi to complete the sweep as Spain won for the fourth time since 2000 while becoming the first nation since Sweden in 1998 to retain the title.
“It may look like routine but I think to win the Davis Cup two years in a row is spectacular,” said Spain captain Albert Costa, whose team beat Argentina in last year’s final. “We need to talk about this a lot … we need to remember. It’s important.”
Spain had already clinched the best-of-five series when Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco won the doubles match on Saturday. The second-ranked Nadal followed up on Sunday by beating Jan Hajek 6-3, 6-4 and Ferrer beat Lukas Dlouhy 6-4, 6-2 on the indoor clay.
The 102nd-ranked Hajek replaced Radek Stepanek for the meaningless match, and the 465th-ranked Dlouhy, a doubles specialist, replaced Tomas Berdych.
The weekend was a big success for Nadal, who arrived in poor form following a four-match losing streak.
“To finish the second half of the season with this ending is very important and nice, especially after all of the problems I had over those two months,” said Nadal, who improved to 12-0 in Davis Cup singles matches on clay.
Spain now has won 18 straight Davis Cup ties at home—stretching to 1999— and 20 straight on clay. Costa was on the team that won here in 2000, while Nadal helped lead the team to victory at Seville in 2004.
“Today’s win was more emotional than when I won it as a player,” Costa said.
The players took their time to celebrate on the court afterward as they posed with the enormous trophy and waved Spanish flags with the 16,000 fans.
“I feel privileged to be Spanish,” Verdasco said. “And to have teammates like these.”
Spain’s streaks will be put to the test in the first round in March against Switzerland, which could be led by Roger Federer.
There have been 23 previous final sweeps, with Sweden’s 5-0 win over the United States in 1997 the last.
Spain improved to 4-2 against the Czechs, who played in their third final and first since 1980 when it won as Czechoslovakia.
