Mayer, Haas Heroes as Germany Reaches Final at ATP World Team Cup

Posted on May 21, 2005

Germany's Tommy Haas and Florian Mayer alternated the role of hero Friday at the World Team Cup in Dusseldorf, edging Spain 2-1 to advance to the final against Argentina.

Haas stumbled at the first hurdle, falling 7-6(4), 6-4 to Spain's Tommy Robredo before Mayer evened the tie at 1-1 with a 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-3 comeback win over Dave Ferrer.

"At the beginning I just let him play too much because I was too defensive and played to much slice," said Mayer, who was at one point a set and 1-3 down in the second. "He likes that because he can just distribute the balls with his forehand. He's very good at that. If you start putting such players under pressure, then they get into trouble."

Haas then redeemed himself in the doubles, teaming with Alexander Waske to put Germany into the final with a 7-6(3), 6-3 win over Robredo and Santiago Ventura.

In the days second match the singles and doubles fortunes were reversed for the U.S. as Vince Spadea put the lone "W" in the singles column for the Americans all week with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Joachim Johansson, and the Bryan brothers lost their first match of the week, going down 6-4, 6-2 to Jonas Bjorkman and Thomas Johansson.

Thomas Johansson earlier defeated American Jeff Morrison 6-1, 6-4 to contribute to the 2-1 win for Sweden.

Argentine last won the WTC in 2002, with Guillermo Canas the only player still on the current squad, while Germany last won in 1998 with Haas and Nicolas Kiefer on that squad also.

In Saturday's final Mayer will face Argentina's Guillermo Coria, and Haas will square off against Gaston Gaudio, with the doubles to be named later.