Henri Kontinen digs deep to bring home Davis Cup tie

Victory over Poland sets up match with South Africa

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Finland did not enjoy the best of weekends in sport - the Rally of Mexico was a disappointment for Mikko Hirvonen (4th) and Jari-Matti Latvala (5th), while Kimi Räikkönen crashed out spectacularly on day one, and the traditional Lahti Salpausselkä Games were hardly a spectacular success for Finnish skiers and ski-jumpers, with the sole exception of Hannu Manninen in the Nordic Combined.
      Even veteran defender Sami Hyypiä of Bayer Leverkusen would probably prefer to forget Sunday, as his team slipped to its first defeat of the season in the Bundesliga, falling 3-2 to struggling Nürnberg after a record 24 straight games without loss.
      The shock defeat toppled Leverkusen from the top of the table to 3rd place.
     
So we certainly needed a cheer-up story, and it was provided by the country's tennis players, who produced a thrilling win over Poland in a Davis Cup Europe/Africa Group One tie on Sunday evening.
      The match went right down to the wire, and the outcome depended on the performance of 19-year-old prospect Henri Kontinen.
      For the fourth time of asking, Kontinen came good, and he won a gruelling five-set match with the Polish #2 Michal Przysiezny 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 to ensure Finland's progress and a tie away to South Africa in May.
     
On paper, in terms of the ATP rankings of the players, Finland were the underdogs going into the match in the Polish Baltic Sea resort of Sopot, and after Friday's singles had left the tie balanced at 1-1, a loss in Saturday's doubles meant that both Jarkko Nieminen and Kontinen had to win their Sunday singles matches to keep Finland in it.
      Nieminen (ATP-85) overcame the Polish No.1 Lukasz Kubot (ATP- 42) in four sets to tie the scores at 2-2, but Kontinen (ATP-295), who had earlier lost to Kubot in straight sets, now had to meet a player who was 150 places above him in the ATP lists, and who had pushed Nieminen all the way to five long sets in his first match.
     
Kontinen took the first set on the strength of solid serving, but the Pole struck back to win the next two sets and was 4-1 up in the fourth, looking to be cruising towards the win.
      Kontinen nevertheless broke back to 4-4 and managed to take the set to a tie-break, which he won 7-4, before going on to win the final set 7-5 for a famous last-gasp victory.
      Despite his youth, Kontinen has been called on to do the business on three previous occasions, securing a 3-2 win against Cyprus last autumn and earlier against Luxembourg and Monaco.
     
Finland will next play South Africa away, with the winner of that match advancing to the World Group play-offs in September.
      At the same time, spare a thought for poor Great Britain, who collapsed 3-2 to lose rather humiliatingly to a group of Lithuanian teenagers in Europe/Africa Group 2, and now face a play-off match with Turkey to avoid relegation to the lowest tier in the competition. World No.4 Andy Murray was not playing for the GB team.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Henri Kontinen marches on at US Open (5.9.2008)

Links:
  Henri Kontinen on the ATP site
  Davis Cup Poland vs. Finland

Helsingin Sanomat