Argentina moved a step closer to the Davis Cup final after Guido Pella beat Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund to give them a commanding 2-0 lead in their World Group semi-final tie on Friday.
The pressure had been on Edmund after Juan Martin Del Potro defeated world number two Andy Murray in five sets to get Argentina off to a winning start following an epic battle on the hard-court of the Emirates Arena earlier in the day in Glasgow.
However, despite taking the first set on a tie-break the 21-year-old had no answer to Pella’s power play as the Argentine claimed victory in just over three hours, 6-7 (5-7),
6-4, 6-3, 6-2.
With a final place against either Croatia or France in November at stake, Pella’s win leaves Argentina needing just one more victory from either Saturday’s doubles or the two remaining singles on Sunday to eliminate the holders and secure a fourth final spot in the past 10 years.
“I am very happy to get the second point for Argentina and the team,” Pella said.
“Juan Martin played an amazing match and I knew this was my chance.”
Edmund couldn’t hide his disappointment after the match.
“It is tough to reflect on it right now,” the 21-year-old said.
“I know where I went wrong. I felt fine out there and felt I was hitting the ball right but there were errors at key moments and need to get the balance a lot better to win.”
World number ones Great Britain haven’t defeated Argentina since 1928 and their hopes of ending that run took a blow before Edmund took to the court following Del Potro’s defeat of home crowd favourite Murray.
Edmund stepped up in Murray’s absence to claim two singles victories in the quarter-final defeat of Serbia in July, and he raced into an early 3-0 lead in the first set thanks to his impressive forehand before Pella recovered to take it to a tie-break.
The Brit’s hopes looked dashed as Pella took a 3-0 advantage but he fought back to win 7-5.
The second set went with serve until Pella, who had claimed victory in the pair’s only other meeting at Indian Wells earlier in the season, struck at the perfect time as he capitalised on Edmund’s unforced errors to break serve in the tenth game to seal a 6-4 victory.
Edmund broke the Argentine’s serve to take a 3-2 lead in the third set but Pella immediately broke back and won the next four games in a row to seal the set.
The world number 55 continued to cause his higher-ranked rival problems in the fourth but, with the finishing line in sight, Pella raised his game to serve a love game to seal the match.
