Asking sports fans in February 2005, just one year before the Luxembourg - Portugal tie, if they know any Luxembourgian tennis player, most of them would have denied that question. But this definitely changed, at least after Gilles Muller's fantastic performance at the US Open 2005. The national tennis hero came back on his home courts and faced ATP #270something Fernando Gil from Portugal.
If I were an editor of a German newspaper and were asked just to write one sentence about that match, I could easily sum it up by "Gilles Muller knew what he was expected to do - and he just did". Wow, the first two sets were just amazing. The Portuguese guy did not play that bad, but his opponent was just too good - too great! Muller won the first four games of first set before he gave Gil the chance to recover a bit: first set 6-2. Same procedure in second set, but this time, the guest player just was allowed to win his serve game once: 6-1. Muller looked slightly less concentrated in third set and leading 2-0 at own serve, the Luxemburgian faced a break point at own serve for the first time in that match. Gil took the chance and was given a chance to come back in the game. The third set was quite balanced during the next games, mostly the serving player did not have any serious problems to win the game. But good players always know how to improve when needed. Gil served when Muller lead 5-4. 15:40, double break and match point. Gilles Muller converted the first one to complete an easy win and to level the score to 1-1 before the Saturday's doubles.