Carreño suffers and leaves a valuable set on the road

With the Low in the absence of Carlos Alcaraz, positive for COVID a day before debut, still hovering over the atmosphere of the Madrid Arena, Spain started the Davis Cup finals with a victory for Feliciano López (6-3 and 6-3 in 1h: 18) about the Ecuadorian Roberto Quiroz. But Pablo Carreño got into a mess in the numbers one duel to give up a set against Emilio Gómez (5-7, 6-3 and 7-6 (5) in 2:36). The tie goes 2-0, but …

With the imposing Russia of Medvedev, Rublev, Karatsev and Khachanov in the group (Sunday, 4:00 p.m. Come on) and with a format in which the first six pass to quarters and the best two seconds and ties are resolved by victories, sets and games, coming out as ‘clean’ as possible from the clash with Ecuador was fundamental. And he’s already missed a set on the way …

From the outset, Feliciano, originally destined to play doubles alongside Marcel Granollers, was faced with an unforeseen situation. Without Roberto Bautista, injured on Tuesday, nor the exciting 18-year-old from Murcia, the captain Sergi Bruguera trusted the gallons of Toledo (five times champion) on the ranking of Albert Ramos (45th) and Pedro Martínez (60th), urgently recruited. The 40 years and the 104th place in the classification mattered little. The veteran took years off with a win.

“Yes, we can!” Shouted a small Ecuadorian parish to cheer on Quiroz (29 years old and 291º), a regular in the second division of the circuit. But the Toledo, who He made his debut 18 years ago at Davis and became known in 2020 at the Madrid Arena by squeezing Andre Agassi, he knew how to handle the situation. In the first set, with serves that went up to 230 km / h (he finished with 14 aces) and marching to the net to cut points and save energy, he broke for 3-1 and did not let go.

In the second set, the break came 3-2, but Quiroz offered some resistance, sapping the energy of a tennis player who is going to be forced to reserve them. Fortunately, a second break came to 6-3.

Era Carreño’s turn, Olympic bronze in Tokyo. And the The pressure of being in the front row blocked him against an opponent he had beaten in October 6-4 and 6-1 in Indian Wells. Andrés Gómez, champion at Roland Garros 1990, He watched from the stands how his son Emilio (29 years old and 149th) climbed onto the beards of the 19th in the world.

Bad to the rest, the pulse low, the Asturian gave up the first set and looked over the precipice. But he came out of it after neutralizing a break ball from the Ecuadorian and winning three games in a row for 6-3. Once released, he managed a break in the third and had two match balls to the rest … He did not know how to take advantage of them and also lost his service, which led the party to agony of the tie-break. There, on the fourth match ball, he managed to escape. But his 55 unforced errors or 4/11 on break balls x-ray an afternoon of suffering.

Carreño, who has fallen the responsibility of leading Spain without Nadal, Bautista or the impulse of Alcaraz, trembled in the first stake. Bad sign, although Bruguera will put him in the doubles with Granollers. His singles record is 3-4. And the way of Spain can be complicated with the set that he missed and that was gold.

Davis Cup results.