Spain ride on Ferrer power

David Ferrer sealed the tie for Spain, who were without their top-ranked player Rafael Nadal, when he beat Mardy Fish 7-5, 7-6, 5-7, 7-6 in the first of the two reverse singles rubbers after a titanic struggle that lasted more than four hours.

The dead rubber, scheduled to be played between Andy Roddick and Feliciano Lopez, was then called off with the result of the tie already decided.
“Spain have never beaten USA in this country,” Spain's non-playing captain Albert Costa said.

“To win against Roddick, Fish and the Bryans, I think this is a great team. For us it's historic.”

Spain had won Friday's two opening singles matches to seize control of the tie but the Americans gave themselves some hope of winning the best-of-five tie when the twins Bob and Mike Bryan won Saturday's doubles.

“I'm very proud of all the guys for all the efforts they put in all the matches. We definitely laid it all out there,” US captain Jim Courier said.

Spain, who have won the Davis Cup four times, in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2009, host France in the semifinals in September after last year's runners-up beat Germany 4-1.

France beat Spain 5-0 in the quarterfinals last year and Costa said his players were determined to avenge that loss.