Tennis: Romania defeats Portugal (3-1) in Davis Cup, through Marius Copil's victory

Romania's men's tennis team defeated Portugal's team, 3-1, in the first round of the World Group I of the Davis Cup, after Marius Copil won, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, against Joao Sousa, at the Horia Demian Sports Hall in Cluj-Napoca, on Sunday. Romania, a team that has no players in the top 200 ATP singles ranking, will now fight for qualification for the final tournament of the competition, a remarkable performance. Copil contributed to all three points of Romania, with two victories in singles and one in doubles, together with Horia Tecau. Copil and Sousa were tied, 2-2, in the direct matches, the Romanian winning the last two confrontations, in 2014 and 2016. On Saturday, in the first singles match, Joao Sousa (32 years old, 150th in the ATP ranking) defeated Filip Cristian Jianu (20 years old, 317th in the ATP) with 6-3, 7-5, and in the second one, Marius Copil (31 years old, 250th in the ATP) scored 6-4, 6-3 against Gastao Elias (30 years, 215th in the ATP). On Sunday, in the doubles match, pair Marius Copil / Horia Tecau defeated Nuno Borges / Joao Sousa, 6-4, 6-3. The Romanian team, led by captain Gabriel Trifu (coach Andrei Mlendea), also included Nicholas David Ionel (18 years old, 440th in the ATP) and Nicolae Frunza (23 years old, 631st in tge ATP), and in the Portuguese team, whose captain is Rui Machado, there was also Frederico Ferreira Silva (26 years old, 184th in the ATP ranking). The two teams have met twice so far in the Davis Cup, the score being 1-1. The Portuguese won in 1988, in Timisoara, 3-2, in the first round of Group I of Europe, and Romania won with the same score in 1995, in Estoril, in the first round of Group I in the Europe-Africa area. AGERPRES (RO - editor: Mihai Tenea; EN - editor: Adina Panaitescu)