Versi�n Espa�ol

The man from Manacor was given his baptism of fire in a competition that seemed proper for expert players only, but Nadal broke every axioma on the subject and if last Friday he was the debutant player in Davis Cup, today he showed that he wasn't going to let many occasions pass to post his first win.

The Balear supplied his lack of experience in the competition with the charisma and character of a champion that accompanied him with every move. With his consistency from the baseline, he kept on disarming Stepanek, who added another deception and who has not tasted a win in his singles matches.

The Czech had already lost, in the former edition, the decisive match in the tie between his team and Russia, and today he felt again the pressure of having to seize the reins of the Czech Republic, even more so when Jiri Novak could not make it in the first match of the day.

Nadal showed his credentials from the very first minutes of the encounter. If the Manacor-born's weaker point is the service, a stroke that generally improves with the years, put his intelligence on the scene. That way, constantly varying his service, he hardly conceded his opponent any opportunity.

It was in the seventh game that he conceded the only break. A minor blemish, as the Spaniard had already succeeded the break earlier, in the fourth game. There weren't any more breaks in this set, in spite of an opportunity for the Spaniard to take the set, mainly because Stepanek found in his serve the weapon that prolonged his agony.

In the tiebreak Nadal renewed his acquaintence with a win. He had lost five consecutive tiebreaks. Two in the Australian Open against Lleyton Hewitt, the other ones Friday against Novak and another one yesterday in doubles.

However, on this occasion Fortune smiled on the man from Manacor, a fate that was accompanied by the maturity he showed, because contrary to what happened earlier, Nadal didn't rush and took advantage of his rival's errors.

And history was to be repeated in the second set -although this time the tiebreak was reached without any breaks- where the Spaniard acquired a more than substantial interest, and more importantly, handed another psychological blow, one that his opponent was not going to recover from.

After conceding this second set neither Stepanek nor his Czech bench believed in the victory they had cherished after yesterday's doubles match. The end was only a matter of time and it reached its last but one chapter in the fourth game, when Nadal succeeded another break.

That was the definite push for Nadal toward his first Davis Cup win. The Manacor-born held his serve and opened the door to the quarter final for the Spanish, in April, and as hosts, when they will face the Netherlands, who beat Canada in the first round.