rogerfederer.com - Sunday: Last chance

Sunday: Last chance

Roger lost at doubles with Swiss teammate Yves Allegro today, giving the Czech Republic a 2-1 lead in their Davis Cup playoff.

Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek saved a match point in the third set before winning 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-4 to put the Czechs one victory from a spot in next year's World Group. The loser drops to a regional zone.

The best-of-five series will be decided in Sunday's reverse singles when Roger faces Berdych and Stanislas Wawrinka takes on Stepanek.

Roger is making his 2007 debut in the Davis Cup for Switzerland, which has been part of the 16-team World Group since 1995. The Czechs were relegated to a regional group once after losing to Germany 3-2 in 2005.

The Czechs made a late change to replace originally nominated pair Martin Damm and Lukas Dlouhy. Instead, they used their two best players to face Roger and Yves.

The Swiss pair broke Stepanek for a 4-2 lead in the first set and finished it with Roger serving an ace on the fast indoor carpet at Sazka Arena. In the second, Berdych dropped his serve in the 11th game and Allegro then served out the set.

The Czechs came close to breaking Roger in the ninth game of the third set and took a 40-0 lead, but our top-ranked player used his serve to save the game. The Swiss were trailing again 4-2 in the tiebreaker before coming back to waste a match point at 6-5. The Czechs finally came back, converting their second set point.

In the fourth set, Yves Allegro double-faulted to give the Czechs an early 2-1 lead. The Czechs broke Allegro for the second time to go ahead 4-3 in the final set and went on to build a 5-3 lead before Berdych won with a serve Roger failed to return.