24 Sep 2004 - Plaza de Toros de Alicante, Alicante, ESP - Chris Bowers - ESP v FRA Bad Light Ends Great Day for France A slow claycourt, a brilliant first singles, and a late start time caused a dramatic first day of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas semifinal to end with France leading Spain 1-0. After Paul-Henri Mathieu's superb but shock four-and-a-half hour victory over Carlos Moya, Juan Carlos Ferrero was on the way to righting the Spanish ship when he took a two-sets lead against Fabrice Santoro. But when fading light stopped play at 19.40 local time, Ferrero was probably relieved to come off, after signs that Santoro was getting into his head. The wily Frenchman seemed blown away after losing his serve five times in the first two sets, but he broke Ferrero twice in the third, and was working his magic in the fourth. Ferrero opened up a 3-0 lead, but when the sun had set too far over the roof of Alicante's charismatic bullring for tennis to continue, Santoro was back in contention, with the score from Spain's perspective 63 62 16 33. Had they continued, Santoro would probably have been more confident of pulling off the win than he will be when they resume on Saturday. Having been run ragged in the first two sets, he was beginning to unsettle Ferrero with his paceless slices, and his well-judged use of the drop-shot return of serve was becoming increasingly effective. Ferrero had a point to lead 4-1 in the fourth set, and had he taken it he might have finished the job before darkness fell. But he let a gentle crosscourt backhand from Santoro drop onto his sideline, one of many indications that Santoro was seriously unsettling the former world No 1 who has had difficulty closing out matches recently. With the break, France must hope Santoro doesn't play too much tennis in the resumed singles (unless he wins!), as he is due to partner Mickael Llodra against Rafael Nadal and Tommy Robredo in the doubles , the rubber the French were most expected to win. If Santoro does take Ferrero to five sets, he may well claim more than his statutory 90 minutes' rest, though France's captain Guy Forget admitted to having Arnaud Cl戗ent on stand-by if Santoro's singles goes long. The Ferrero v Santoro match will resume at 11:30am local time on S aturday with the doubles rubber commencing at least one and a half hours the end of the singles rubber, the Entitlement to Rest Rule will be enforced. Irrespective of the outcome of Ferrero v Santoro, the day belonged to Paul-Henri Mathieu, the 77th-ranked Frenchman whose last Davis Cup by BNP Paribas outing saw him lose the deciding match of the 2002 final to Russia's Mikhail Youzhny from two-sets-up. He started well against Moya, but when the world No 6 bounced back to take the second and third sets for the loss of just five games, a four-sets home win looked likely. But Mathieu broke for 4-2 in the fourth when Moya played an awful drop shot, a break that 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, and then broke again to seal a 63 36 62 36 63 victory that lays to rest his ghosts from the 2002 final. -- Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell. --

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