Mayer Secures Quarterfinal Spot for Argentina

GDANSK, POLAND: Argentina can start planning their next Davis Cup by BNP Paribas adventure - a quarterfinal trip to Italy - after finishing off World Group newcomers Poland 3-1 in Gdansk on Sunday.
The visitors needed one more point to get past an injury-ravaged Polish side and one-man Davis Cup wrecking ball Leonardo Mayer stepped up and delivered once more, fighting his way past a stubborn Michal Przysiezny 67(4) 76(4) 62 63 to notch up his 11th successive victory in his country’s colours.
World No. 41 Mayer had gone into the fourth rubber of the weekend as hot favourite against a player who only started hitting balls around a week ago before playing his first match since early November on Friday after a lengthy injury lay-off.
But Przysiezny - the stand-in Polish No.1 with the hosts’ highest ranked player Jerzy Janowicz out with a long-term knee injury - put up a brave fight inside a noisy Ergo Arena.
The lightning-fast indoor hard court played into the Polish world No. 318’s hands and a serve-dominated opening set went his way when he hustled a minibreak midway through the shootout.
Przysiezny scrambled back a Mayer overhead at 4-4 only for the Argentine to fluff a low backhand volley. That gave Przysiezny a 5-4 advantage and he nervelessly served out the next two points. Incredibly, Mayer had lost only two points on serve during the opening set.
The second was just as tight and again it came down to a single point that ultimately decided the set. This time it was Przysiezny who blinked when he missed a backhand volley on the opening point of the tiebreak. Try as he might, Przysiezny couldn’t get back on level terms and Mayer closed out the breaker 7-4 with an ace up the ‘T’.
In hindsight, maybe that missed backhand volley turned the match. The first break of the day finally went to Mayer in the second game of the third set when the Argentine converted his third break point with a ripper of a cross-court forehand to go up 2-0.
Mayer defended that single break - only dropping a measly seven points on serve during the first three sets - and Przysiezny buckled again when serving to stay in it at 2-5, the second break of the match coming courtesy of a double fault on set point.
Mayer’s only real test thereafter came in the third game of the fourth when he saved two break points from 15-40. The first was dealt with thanks to a crisp backhand volley and the second with an ace that clipped the edge of the line. Another ace saw him through the game and that, in truth, was the last chance Przysiezny had to turn the tie around.
Another inconsistent game on serve left Przysiezny at 0-40 moments later and Mayer converted the second of his three chances when the Pole threw in another costly double fault.
Not long afterwards the Argentine celebrations began as Mayer put the finishing touches to another nerveless display for his country.

Source: DavisCup.com