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Stepanek the Czech hero
Radek Stepanek clinched the Davis Cup by winning the deciding rubber in the final for the second year running. Has anyone ever done this before? asked James O'Neill
Radek Stepanek did indeed have the good fortune to close out the last two Davis Cup finals for the Czech Republic after starting the final rubber with the match tied at 2-2.
In Prague in 2012 he defeated Nicolas Almagro of Spain in four sets, and this year he overcame Serbia's Dusan Lajovic in straight sets in Belgrade. Stepanek is the first person ever to manage this feat in successive years, and actually only the third - and the first for 77 years - to do it more than once.
Fred Perry won the decisive rubber for Great Britain in both 1933 and 1936, and before that France's Henri Cochet actually managed it three times - in 1927, 1929 and 1931. Stepanek, who turned 35 on November 27, is also the oldest man to win the deciding singles in a Davis Cup final.
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