Rafael Nadal plays Juan Martin del Potro in the opening reverse singles match of the Davis Cup final 2011 on Sunday.
Spain lead the tie 2-1 and a win for Nadal will give them their fifth Davis Cup title. Nadal goes into the match with 19 successive Davis Cup singles wins in his career, including the victory in the first singles match of this tie.
The Spaniard defeated Juan Monaco 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 to give Spain the lead before David Ferrer made it 2-0.
Del Potro did have his chances to level the score at 1-1 when he led Ferrer in the second singles match of the final by two sets to one. Ferrer fought back to defeat del Potro and now the Argentine is left with unenviable job of defeating Nadal.
Del Potro and Nadal have played nine times against each other, with the Spaniard world number two leading the head-to-head 6-3. All three of del Potro’s wins against Nadal came in 2009 on hard court and since then, Nadal has won two successive matches.
If Nadal wins this best-of-five encounter, the last reverse singles match between Juan Monaco and David Ferrer would be of only academic interest. However, if del Potro can defeat Nadal, the winner of the Davis Cup this year will be decided by the Monaco-Ferrer match.
The Nadal v del Potro match will be played at 12.00 pm GMT on December 4.
