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Davis Cup: Russia Meets Argentina in the Final The Russians get first win over the United States after the end of the Cold War. Argentina hammered Australia 5-0	By Ovidiu Panzariu, Sports Editor 25th of September 2006, 07:09 GMT Adjust text size:


Argentina stated very clearly what their main purpose for the Davis Cup semifinal was. David Nalbandian put it in one sentence: "We don't want to beat them, we want to whitewash Australia". And the whole crowd agreed, since Lleyton Hewitt's bodyguard "scandal" angered all tennis fans in Buenos Aires. Maradona also wanted a 5-0 score. The former South American football legend advised Nalbandian and Acasuso to destroy Australia: "I can't believe Hewitt insulted us like that. Does he think we're savages? We'll have to make him remember this trip to Argentina. But not in the way that he suggested. We'll beat him like hell". And, after the first 2 days, Argentina was already in the final. The 3-0 score kept the South Americans in Maradona's game. Augustin Calleri made it official on Sunday, when he crushed Arthur Hanley 6-3, 6-0 to clinch the 4th win for his country. And, due to Hewitt, Philippoussis and Arthur suffering from back and knee injuries, Argentina automatically got the 5th win. The South Americans will meet Russia in this year's Davis Cup final. The Europeans met USA Team in Moscow and the match didn't go down like in Buenos Aires at all. Russia took a comfortable 2-0 lead after Day 1, but the Bryan brothers kept USA in the game for Sunday's meetings. And the 4th match was a thriller all the way. Andy Roddick met Dimtry Tursunov and, with a win there, could have taken it into a decider. The Russian started the match determined to become the party starter for the Moscow crowd. And, after almost an hour of play, the Tursunov was leading 2 sets to none. Still, the US Open finalist broke back and triumphed in the next 2 sets, to make it 2 even. The final set was an incredible fight for survival, with both players going head-to-head until 15-15. It was Roddick's first such match since the phenomenal win in Australian open 3 years ago, against Younes El Aynaoui (21-19 in the decider). Still, Russia prevailed this time, with Tursunov keeping his cool and clinching the 5-setter in the 32nd game of the 5th. And he was delighted: "I didn't have much time to prepare, to work out a strategy for the match. I had some ideas of how to play him. It worked for the first two sets but not for the next two. In the fifth set I had no strategy, just tried to fight back". James Blake beat Marat Safin 7-6, 7-5 in the 5th match, but things were already over for the US Team. Russia will play their first Davis Cup final after winning the trophy 3 years ago. The European side also registered their first success against USA Team since the end of the Cold War. Russia will host Argentina for the Davis Cup final in December. Here are the knockout round results in Davis Cup last weekend: Austria - Mexico 5-0 Germany - Thailand 4-1 Netherlands - Czech Republic 1-4 Romania - Rep Korea 4-1 Slovakia - Belgium 2-3 Spain - Italy 4-1 Switzerland - Serbia 4-1 Brazil - Sweden 2-1 (in process)

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