Verdasco wins. Spain celebrates

He could become hero, probably not just for one day. He could have led his country to hope again, to arrive where even Clerk and Vilas never come to, to reach what even the historical legends never obtained.

Instead Jose Acasuso closed his bad day crying and excusing himself with his nation and with that stoned part who assisted on court to the Spanish triumph. Fernando Verdasco won 63 67 46 63 61 and gited Spain his third Davis Cup.

The Red Devils (nothing to do with Manchester United) made a heaven of the Estadio Islas Malvinas, suddenly become an albiceleste hell. This day could be known as platazo, referring to the famous maracanazo, the success of Uruguay in Brazi in the last match of the 1950 World Cup of football.

For the first two sets, the thrilling development didn't succeed in balancing the lack of technical contents. A succession of estremely unforced errors showed a level of tension difficultly sufferable; frailty seemed the leitmotiv of the encounter. Acasuso had to deal with the heaviest pressure and soon lost the first set. But Verdasco didn't “kill” the match, and doublefaulted to let Verdasco break to 2-0 in the second. At 3-0 the Argentinian fighted for long against the umpire and the technology (Acasuso challenged a point, but seemingly claimed that the footage belonged to another point), the Spaniard slammed an ace to solve the situation. Verdasco obtained seven points in a row between 4-2 and 4-3 but lost his serve. Acasuso didn't benefit from that and was counter-broken. The set went to the tiebreak where tension dominated the points. Jose went 6-3 up and played a fearful last rally with balls travelling high upon the net. Verdasco found the net to level the match. This has been the only tiebreak won by Argentina in three days.

Not enough to change the story of the match. A match that Acasuso could have finish differently if he had managed his emotions. The third set opened with three consecutive breaks; the Argentinian was the first to hold, to love. When Verdasco broke to 4-4 the Spanish contingent started to cheer, but they were soon forced to silence again. A stunning return up the line from Acasuso led the Argentinian serve for the set and an ace sealed the game.

The number 16 entered finally into the match, while the number 48 fatally lost concentration in the worst possibly moment, letting Verdasco escape to 4-2 in the fourth and again to 6-3. The left-hander dropped to his knees to scream his delight while Acasuso relived a nightmare.

Two years ago he played the last, decisive singles against Marat Safin in the final against Russia losing in four sets. Today the story repeated irself with cruel punctuality.

When Verdasco found the definite forehand down the line he felt down on the carpet with joyful tears on his face. There will be no more tears, instead, in Acasuso's eyes, after this second, heavy Davis Cup delusion.

Red and yellow become the true colours of the triumph while fairytales with sad endings crowded Argentinian minds. Definitely they are the waiting.                   

Alessandro Mastroluca