Austria will face Spain in its first Davis Cup quarter-final for 17 years after beating Russia 3-2 in their first-round match on Sunday.
Austria’s Jurgen Melzer defeated Alex Bogomolov Jr., who was making his debut for Russia, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 in the decisive rubber to give Austria an insurmountable 3-1 lead.
Russian world no. 72 Igor Kunitsyn won the final tie against Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4) to rescue some pride for Russia in the dead rubber.
"Giving Austria the chance to play a quarterfinal against Spain, that was our goal, that’s what we’ve been working for for so many years,” Melzer told the official Davis Cup website.
“We always said we have a chance, we have a chance playing at home but never really took it. This time we executed it perfectly.”
The defeat capped a poor Davis Cup debut for Bogomolov, representing Russia for the first time after switching allegiances from the United States, after he lost to world no. 127 Haider-Maurer on Saturday, 6-1, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.
Austria will contest its first Davis Cup quarter-final since 1995 when it plays Spain away between April 6 and 8, while Russia will have to fight for their World Group status for the second year in a row.
The decisive rubber was all about Melzer, who notched up 42 winners to Bogomolov’s 20, as well as 11 aces, but also conceded far more points from unforced errors.
On Saturday, the Russian pair of Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny fought for almost five hours to keep Russia in the tie, eventually beating Austria’s Alexander Peya and Oliver Marach 6-7 (1), 7-6 (7), 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Friday’s opening singles rubbers were dominated by veteran Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev’s surprise decision to reserve his highest-ranked player, world no. 32 Youzhny, for the doubles rubber.
Melzer defeated Kunitsyn, Russia’s lowest-ranked player, 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to give Austria an early edge, before Haider-Maurer pressed home the advantage by beating Bogomolov.
Bogomolov later told Russian website chempionat.com that he and Kunitsyn had been forced to play the singles rubbers because Youzhny was suffering with a shoulder injury and Davydenko had been ill.
