Ferrero Sinks Spain in Davis Cup Final

Posted on December 1, 2003

After losing a five-setter to Lleyton Hewitt on the opening day, Juan Carlos Ferrero lost another five-setter Sunday, this time to Mark Philippoussis 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 2-6, 6-0 for Australia to clinch the Davis Cup for 2003.

\"This is incredible,\" said Philippoussis, who dropped his opening match in a surprise to Carlos Moya. \"At the end I was just completely numb. It felt like I wasn\'t playing, I was sort of watching from the side. I didn\'t know what was going on. Thank God those shots were going in.\"

Philippoussis rolled through the first two sets, then the momentum changed with Ferrero taking the second two sets easily, then an injury time-out by Flipper turned the momentum back in his favor and he rolled to a 6-0 victory in the fifth.

\"The feeling is bad and of sadness,\" a crushed Ferrero said. \"We came here with a lot of hope. We wanted to win this final but we had a bit of bad luck.\"

It was the 28th Davis Cup title for Australia, which trails only the United States with 31 titles. Spain is 1-3 in Davis Cup finals.