The sportive part of the tie was over, time for the dead rubber. Most of the people went home, so that there were just a very few people in the National Tennis Center. Nevertheless, these friendly-match-like rubbers often offer great tennis, so for many tennis fans, they are always worth a watch - especially as both captain gave their no. 4 of the team a chance to show their abilities.
To be honest, the first set was quite boring tennis - but at least, the set got thrilling at the end. Nicau was broken in the sixth game, but managed to re-break when Kremer served for the set at the score of 5-3. The match went into the tie-breaker. After a weak start with two double faults during the first four points, the tie-break continued being close. Portugal had the first set point, at the score of 6:5, but Kremer to serve. Analogously, Luxemburg and Portugal had a set point each afterwards. At the score of 8:8, Kremer was unlucky to commit a double fault, which decided the first set.
After the tie-break, the match got much better. Kremer got the lead again by breaking Nicau in the first game, but like in the first set, Nicau was able to re-break (this time, to tie the score to a 2-2). Both players had no problems to win the game at serve for the next time, until Nicau faced a triple break point against him in the ninth game. Kremer said thanks and converted the second set point at own serve to tie the set score.
Both players started serving strong in the third set. But in the fifth game, Kremer had triple break point against the Portuguese's serve - and though Nicau had the double chance to re-break in the game afterwards, he did not take this chance this time. It was his last chance of the match, while Kremer could not convert three match points at Nicau's serve at 5-3, before he converted the overall fifth one to win the set 6-4.
Kremer completed a wonderful Daviscup weekend, in which the host team completely deserved to beat Portugal. I would love to express me deep thanks to the Luxembourgian tennis federation FLT for the wonderful time in the beautiful arena in Esch, Luxembourg.