Summary
THE journey from Szcecin continued its triumphal march at the O2 Arena. The Polish town was the scene of the first victory as a doubles grouping by Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski. That was all of eight years ago in a Challenger event. The Poles now have their sights set on a more glittering prize.
They began their campaign for the doubles title yesterday with a highly impressive win over Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic, of Serbia, 6-4, 6-4. The underdogs of Poland certainly had their day. They went into the match with a poor record against their opponents, only being successful in two out of seven matches. But they have an impressive record in England. They won at Eastbourne this season and, more famously, defeated Andy Murray and Ross Hutchins in the Davis Cup tie played in Liverpool earlier this year. Matkowski insisted, too, that the pair felt they had more than just a chance to beat their opponents. "We knew if we played well, we could win against them, " he said. Fyrstenberg said the key to victory was the consistent, heavy serving of both himself and his partner. Matkowski added: "We focused mainly on holding our serve. If you hold serve, then it puts pressure on your opponents. Today our serve worked almost perfectly. We did not face a single break point. That put Daniel and Zenad under pressure, they had to hold their serve but we broke them." This simple strategy was complemented by refined doubles play from a partnership who know each other's every move.See the full content of this document
Extract
Underdogs in Pole Position in London
They first met at a junior training camp in the early 1990s but have grown together into ...
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