MADRID (Reuters) – Kazakhstan veteran Mikhail Kukushkin claimed an epic victory over Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic to give his country the lead in their Davis Cup quarter-final tie in Madrid on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old came back from 2-5 down in the deciding set and saved four match points before converting his fifth match point to claim a 7-6(5) 4-6 7-6(11) win.
Kecmanovic, thrown in for his Davis Cup debut, did not do much wrong but just could not put away his opponent in a match that veered one way and another for three hours 18 minutes.
Kazakhstan are one win away from a place in the semi-finals for the first time, having lost five quarter-finals, but the formidable presence of world number one Novak Djokovic stands in their way.
Djokovic, who has won his last 16 Davis Cup singles rubbers, must beat the unpredictable Alexander Bublik to keep Serbia alive and send the tie into a doubles decider.
Serbia captain Viktor Troicki elected to go with world number 69 Kecmanovic ahead of more experienced options and it looked to have paid off as the 22-year-old rose to the task.
Kukushkin, now ranked 182 but once inside the top 40, began slowly as he dropped his opening service game, but his experience showed as he took the first set on a tiebreaker and led 4-2 with a break in the second set.
Kecmanovic found another level, however, and won seven games in a row to snatch the second set and move 3-0 ahead in the decider before Kukushkin dug in.
Kukushkin saved five break points to avoid falling 4-0 down and, throwing caution to the wind, he saved three match points as Kecmanovic served at 5-3.
Kecmanovic was the first to reach match point in a nerve-shredding tiebreaker but blazed a forehand long at 6-5.
The Serb showed great resilience to stave off four match points but Kukushkin finally got the job done as he took the breaker 13-11.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)
