The Finnish team completes a historic group stage and qualifies for the Davis Cup final after a 3-0 win against the USA.
Davis Cup results
With today’s draw in Split, Group D decided which team would accompany the Netherlands into the final phase of the competition. Finland This came after a loss to the Netherlands and a win over Croatia to qualify. Same case for USA, who defeated the home team on the first day and then lost to the clear dominator of the group. Therefore, the team that wins would also qualify for the final stage.
Virtanen sorprende a McDonald
The first point was hotly contested, and it was a tough three-set battle to see who started in front. The Finn failed in the fourth game of the set, but his opponent quickly recovered and equalized to make it 3-0. The rest of the set remained close, with both players winning their serves, although McDonald had to save a set point in the tenth game. As it was, the set went into the tiebreaker, moment when Virtanen took the lead. The second set was bland, McDonald broke his opponent’s serve twice and won 6-1.
The third set began with a break by the American to make it 2-0, giving the impression that the set would be the same as the previous one. However, to the cheers of the audience, Otto managed to break in the sixth game. Afterwards there was a break that culminated in an exciting tiebreaker. Already in the tiebreak Virtanen blew everything up with a 9:7 win.
Ruusuvuori cierra the series
It was the turn of Tommy Paul and Emil Ruusuvuori, who secured the decisive point of the series with their match. The game started with three quick breaks and ended with Paul dominating the scoreboard 5-2. At that moment the Finn showed his best level to level the set for the fifth time and get a break to make the score 6:5 and serve. However, he couldn’t confirm it and a break from the American saw the set go to a tiebreak, with Ruusuvuori dominating in magnificent fashion. The second game remained a draw until the final stages, where new chaos ensued, ending with the Finn winning 5-4. Paul saved three match points to level the series, but lost his ensuing serve to finish 6-4.
Finland takes the double
The doubles match was extremely close, requiring three tiebreakers to determine the winner of the match. The first set went to the American pair Ram and Krajicek, who won the first set tiebreak thanks to a score of 8-6. The second set followed the same pattern, with the tiebreaker being decisive, but this time going to the Finnish pair thanks to a 7:5. At the end there was a 10:8 victory for a Finnish team that had qualified for the Davis Cup final for the first time.
