<p>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.<br /><br />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.<br />“Spain have never beaten USA in this country,” Spain's non-playing captain Albert Costa said.<br /><br />“To win against Roddick, Fish and the Bryans, I think this is a great team. For us it's historic.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />“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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />France beat Spain 5-0 in the quarterfinals last year and Costa said his players were determined to avenge that loss.<br /></p>
<p>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.<br /><br />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.<br />“Spain have never beaten USA in this country,” Spain's non-playing captain Albert Costa said.<br /><br />“To win against Roddick, Fish and the Bryans, I think this is a great team. For us it's historic.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />“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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />France beat Spain 5-0 in the quarterfinals last year and Costa said his players were determined to avenge that loss.<br /></p>
