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Russians win doubles for Davis Cup lead

Sat 12th, April 2008

Moscow, Russia (Sports Network) - Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev captured Saturday's pivotal doubles match against Radek Stepanek and Pavel Vizner to give Russia a 2-1 lead over the Czech Republic in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.

Davydenko and Andreev rallied from a set down to claim a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 win, leaving the Russians just one point shy of their fourth straight Davis Cup semifinal appearance.

A victory in either of Sunday's reverse singles matches will put Russia into September's semifinals against the winner between Argentina and Sweden.

Barring any changes in the lineup, Andreev will get the first chance to close it out for Russia on Sunday when he takes on Tomas Berdych. Both were losers on Friday in the opening singles rubbers, as Andreev lost to Stepanek in three sets after Berdych blew a two-set lead and fell to Marat Safin.

However, there is a chance that Russia captain Shamil Tarpischev will slide Davydenko into Andreev's slot for Sunday's first match.

Should Berdych prevail and square the best-of-five tie, Safin and Stepanek would play the decisive match.

The two-time champion Russians and one-time titlist Czechs have split eight all-time matchups. Russia has won the last two meetings, with the most recent one coming in 2003, when Davydenko beat Stepanek in a deciding fifth rubber.

Russia was last year's Davis Cup runner-up to the 32-time champion United States and has won two of the last six titles in this prestigious international team event.

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