Saturday, 12 April, 2008

Spain ended the first day of their Davis Cup quarter-final with Germany 2-0 up after David Ferrer recovered from a set down to beat Philipp Kohlschreiber.

He lost the first set on a tie-break but went on to win 6-7 (3/7) 6-3 6-4 6-2 to add to Rafael Nadal's defeat of Nicolas Kiefer earlier in the day.

Ferrer made far fewer winners than his erratic German opponent, who also made 96 unforced errors in the three hour 10 minutes clash.

In the opening rubber, Nadal had earlier cruised to a 7-6 (7/5) 6-0 6-3 win over Kiefer.

The first set lasted almost an hour and a half with Kiefer smashing 12 aces but he could not maintain the pace and capitulated after losing a narrow tie-break.

He could do nothing about the 23 forehand winners Nadal served up and made 65 unforced errors himself to swing the match firmly in the Spaniard's favour in the last two sets.

"It was obviously hard for Nicolas after losing that first set," said Nadal. "He suffered a bit of a dip."T

Argentina on top at home
Roddick sends USA ahead
Spain on top against Germany
Stepanek cruises past Andreev
Davenport sets up Sharapova rematch
Murray out of Valencia with virus
Venus withdraws from Charleston
Change to Wimbledon warm-up events
Murray confirms Beijing presence
Nadal hails 'unbelievable' Davydenko