Great match & great effort form Marat & Igor to almost come back from 2 sets down!
I think both Marat & Igor deserve big applause! Great to see Marat's fist pumps & his desire to win!
Yes, it's sad, because they had many more chances to break than Israel pair, but couldn't convert..
And yes, though Ram/Erlich haven't played together for a long time, they are still double players, and Marat isn't.
But Marat's volleys & net play were very good, if only he could serve more consistently..
Too bad doubles match was Marat's last at Davis Cup..I don't think he will be playing dead rubber tomorrow. .
Here's what Marat said after match - translated from championat.ru
"We were a bit unlucky - Davydenko & Tursunov could not play this time. Andreev is not in his best form, you saw that yesterday. We were close to victory, you can't argue with that, but the result of match was defined by couple of points. It's a sport, and anything happens - sometimes you win, sometimes you loose. We fought to the end today, and in any case it's an experience. I was in Russian team for 11 years, and I always liked playing for my country. It's absolutely special feeling, which is hard to compare with something else.."
