24 Sep 2004 - Plaza de Toros de Alicante, Alicante, ESP - Chris Bowers - ESP v FRA Mathieu Magic ends Moya's Winning run "Allez Paulo" was the cry which rang out around the Alicante bull ring this afternoon after the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas once again waved its magic wand over the world rankings. Paul-Henri Mathieu, ranked 77, ended Carlos Moya's eight-match Davis Cup unbeaten run, which stretched back to February 2001, with a 63 36 26 63 63 victory setting France on the way to a still improbable but now distinctly possible semifinal victory over Spain. In short, Moya didn't play his best, while Mathieu hung in when he looked beaten, and played one of the best matches of his life. Not only did he battle back from two sets to one down after Moya had dropped just five games in the second and third sets, but he made good a 0-2 deficit in the fifth set to beat the world No 6 in four hours 30 minutes. The win erases the nightmare of Mathieu's last Davis Cup match, the five-set final of the 2002 competition which he lost to Russia's Mikhail Youzhny, and comparisons with that match weren't far from his mind. "I was two points away from victory then," he said, "and today I was thinking of that, but I took my chance, and that's why I won." Moya was magnanimous in defeat, but still felt he should have won the match. "I knew it would be tough," he said, "he does everything well, but still I think today I was controlling the match and then in the fourth and fifth sets I had many chances. I think I lost it. I'm sorry for the spectators who were excellent in supporting me, but I gave everything and I can't really explain why I didn't win." After a nervous start, Mathieu was quicker into his stride, silencing a vociferous crowd that had painted the 10,000 seats of the bullring in the red and yellow of Spain. While the Frenchman was happy to rally from the baseline, Moya seemed impatient and was making numerous errors on his normally trusty forehand. When Mathieu broke for 1-0 in the second set, an upset was already looming, but Moya took the Frenchman's next two service games to turn the tide. The Spaniard broke in the first game of the third set, and when he broke again for 4-1, Mathieu looked to be succumbing to the quality of Moya's play. But Mathieu steadied his ship, and broke for 4-2 in the fourth when Moya played an awful drop shot with Mathieu seemingly stranded at the back of the court. That break sufficed for Mathieu to take the match into a fifth set, but still Moya looked the favourite, especially when he broke for 2-0 in the decider. The third game proved crucial. Moya saved three break-back points and had chances for a 3-0 lead. But Mathieu converted his fourth, sticking to his strategy of peppering the Moya backhand and then going to the forehand for the killer blow. As he broke back, he thumped his heart in an increasingly frequent gesture which the 800-odd blue-clad French supporters in the bullring clearly warmed to. The crucial break came in the seventh, Mathieu playing his best game of the match to take Moya's serve to love. He then played measured tennis to come back from 15-40 before holding for 5-3. Suddenly a match that had always been close was in the Frenchman's grasp, and he broke for a third time in four games to take the match on a 29-stroke rally in which Moya was very defensive. Mathieu added: "Maybe my injury helped me a lot. I had six months out, and this has given me a lot of confidence, even if I was in a lot of pain. This match came very early in the season for me, as I've only been back seven weeks." And that relative freshness could help Mathieu if he has to play another live fifth rubber on Sunday, a prospect that has moved closer with this highly impressive victory. France's Fabrice Santoro plays Spain's 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second rubber. -- 生無以建立奇絕 死當含無窮之恨 --

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