Doubles specialist Jonas Bjorkman and rookie Joachim Johansson put Sweden within one win of an upset victory over Davis Cup champions Australia winning the pivotal doubles in a five-set classic at Memorial Drive in Adelaide on Saturday.
In a spiky contest, Bjorkman and Johansson beat the Australian combination of Todd Woodbridge and Wayne Arthurs 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 2-6, 6-7 (4/7) 7-5 in more than four hours.
Their crucial victory gave the Swedish outsiders a 2-1 edge going into Sunday’s two final-day reverse singles.
It was the first Davis Cup win for the new Swedish pair and ended a winning three-match run by Woodbridge and Arthurs in the team’s competition.
”It’s never over, it’s best of five sets and you are going to have a few let-downs,” said Bjorkman, the regular doubles partner of Woodbridge on the men’s tour.
”They started a little slow and they fixed it up and you’ve just have to try to keep going and hope to get back into the match. We did that really well today,” Bjorkman said.
Johansson paid tribute to the priceless experience of Bjorkman in the tough moments of the marathon match.
”Jonas helped me a lot today in this win and I have to say thanks to him,” Johansson said.
The match blew up early in the fourth set when chair umpire Carlos Ramos twice had to warn a Australian supporters’ group, The Fanatics, under the competition’s partisan crowd behaviour rules to stop making personal comments to the Swedes as they were about to serve.
Johansson, who walked to the umpire’s chair to complain about the abuse he was receiving from a section of the crowd, was particularly rattled by the incident, dropping two serves as the Australians fought back and led 4-1 before Woodbridge’s serve was broken and the marathon fourth set went into a tiebreaker.
Australia got to two set points on two Johansson netted volleys and levelled the match at two sets-all when the 21-year-old Swede again netted a low half-volley to end the 74-minute set struggle.
Australia looked to have swung the momentum their way in the deciding set with an early break of Bjorkman’s serve to lead 3-1, but Woodbridge was broken for the fourth time in the match giving the Swedes a sniff of victory.
Pressure was building on the Australians and Woodbridge dropped serve for the fifth time in the 12th game to hand the Swedes an epic victory.
The victory gives Sweden a great chance to avenge their 5-0 humiliation by Australia in Malmo last April.
They have yet to win in Australia in three previous ties heading back to 1986.
Australia have been in four of the last five finals and last December they downed Spain 3-1 in Melbourne for their 28th title, second only to the United States (31). — Sapa-AFP