Tennis: Nadal’s blitz puts Spain in Davis Cup final

World number two thrashes France’s Tsonga in convincing display.

COLOMBO: Rafael Nadal showed he had put his exertions at the US Open behind him when he demolished France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-0, 6-2, 6-4 to put Spain through to the Davis Cup final.

Tsonga was powerless against the relentless Nadal as the world number two claimed his 17th win in 18 Davis Cup singles matches to give Spain an unbeatable 3-1 lead.

Nadal followed up his thrashing of Richard Gasquet in the opening singles with another commanding display. He did not face a single break point against Tsonga and sealed victory on his first match point.

Meanwhile, fading light forced the suspension of the Australia-Switzerland World Group playoff, with Lleyton Hewitt and Stanislas Wawrinka into the final set of the deciding match.

Switzerland’s Wawrinka was two sets to one up and leading 5-3 in the fifth when the match was abandoned for the day. The players will come back today, with the Swiss leading 4-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4, 5-3.

Earlier, world number three Roger Federer levelled the best-of-five tie at 2-2 when he beat Bernard Tomic 6-2, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Federer later said that he felt bad for Wawrinka and Hewitt having to resume their match today after battling it out for so long.

“For the players it’s the worst because the last thing you want is a match decided like this,” he said.

Elsewhere, Japan stormed into the World Group after Kei Nishikori defeated Vishnu Vardhan 7-5, 6-3, 6-3, to give the hosts an insurmountable lead over India.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th,  2011.