LONDON: No Carlos Alcaraz, no problem for Spain.
In front of a partisan home crowd at Valencia, Spain cruised to a 3-0 win over Serbia in the Davis Cup Finals on Wednesday to move top of their group.
The top-ranked Alcaraz had arrived in Valencia the previous day but skipped the opening round, which was taking place only three days after the Spanish teenager won the US Open. He did appear during the national anthems, much to the crowd’s delight.
Sunday’s victory over Casper Ruud saw the 19-year-old Alcaraz become the youngest man to lead the ATP computerized rankings since they began in 1973.
But Albert Ramos Viñolas rallied to beat Laslo Đere 2-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 in the opening rubber that lasted just under three hours. And Roberto Bautista Agut prevailed 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) over Miomir Kecmanovic to secure victory.
The crowd roared in delight and Bautista Agut sunk to his knees after placing a backhand out of Kecmanovic’s reach after 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez beat Nikola Cacic and Dusan Lajovic 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-2 in the doubles to complete the whitewash of Serbia, who is without Novak Djokovic.
Granollers and Bautista Agut were part of Spain’s victorious Davis Cup team in 2019.
Three other venues — Bologna in Italy, Hamburg, Germany and Glasgow, Scotland — are hosting group-stage matches ahead of the single-venue quarterfinals that will be played in the southern Spanish city of Malaga in November.
In Group C in Hamburg, a home crowd helped propel Germany to their first win over France since 1938.
Jan-Lennard Struff put Germany in front with a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 victory over Benjamin Bonzi, after the Frenchman failed to convert two match points. But Adrian Mannarino evened the tie with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Oscar Otte.
However, Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz maintained their perfect Davis Cup record as a pairing by defeating Nicolas Mahut and Arthur Rinderknech 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (1) to end a run of eight straight defeats for Germany against France.
The hosts also won in Group A, in Bologna, as Italy beat top-ranked Canada 3-0.
Lorenzo Mussetti eased past Borna Gojo 6-4, 6-2 before Matteo Berrettini rallied to beat Borna Coric 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-1. Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli also had to recover from a set down to see off Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3).
Gojo, Mektic and Pavic were all part of the Croatia team that lost to Russia in last year’s final. Croatia also won the Davis Cup in 2018.
Russia will not be able to defend their title from last year after being banned from international team competitions because of the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.
