Spain grabs 2-0 Davis Cup lead on U.S.

MADRID, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- David Ferrer rallied for a five-set victory and Rafael Nadal claimed a tough four-set win Friday, putting Spain one victory away from the Davis Cup finals.

Spain owns a 2-0 lead over the United States in the best-of-five semifinals. The series, being played on a clay court, could be decided Saturday in a doubles match between Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco and Americans Mike Bryan and Mardy Fish.

If the Americans win that, Sunday's reverse singles would determine the finalist.

Nadal opened the best-of-five series by knocking off stubborn Sam Querrey, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, in a match that took 3 hours, 17 minutes. Querrey fired 17 aces and had 17 more winners than Nadal, but Nadal earned the world No. 1 ranking with steady play, which he showed by breaking Querrey's serve four times and waiting out Querrey, who had 74 unforced errors.

Andy Roddick dropped a first-set tiebreaker but was sharp in taking a 2-1 set lead against Ferrer. Ferrer fought back, winning the fourth set with an early break and taking the fifth by breaking Roddick's serve at 6-6 and holding his serve to finish off the 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 8-6 win.

The winner of the U.S.-Spain semifinal will go against the winner of a Russia-Argentina semifinal for the Davis Cup title in November.