Argentina gana batalla de David y Goliath

A stress-free David Nalbandian rode roughshod over a lacklustre Lleyton Hewitt to pilot Argentina to a watershed Davis Cup quarter-final victory over Australia.

For the first time in history, Argentina finds itself official favourite to lift the Cup after the Nalbandian-inspired triumph on the specially-laid grass court at the Sydney International Tennis Centre.

Nalbandian, the undisputed hero for the South Americans with three wins in three days, seized a rare opportunity to beat an uncharacteristically flat Hewitt 6-2 6-4 6-4 to give Argentina an unassailable 3-1 lead in the marquee tie.

Guillermo Coria defeated Peter Luczak 6-3 7-6 (13-11) after the 25-year-old Australian was handed his Cup debut for the dead singles rubber.

"This is incredible. Not just to win three, but also the way we did it. It's a really amazing moment," Nalbandian said after ending Hewitt's five-year, 26-match winning streak in singles contests at the Olympic venue.

"I think Lleyton was very, very nervous and that helped me in the match. And the team is very strong so when I took the court I felt that if I don't win this match, Guillermo is going to win it anyway.

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Advertisement"So I tried to play my best and when I saw Lleyton was so nervous at the beginning I changed my mind a little bit."

Nalbandian, who had lost all three previous meetings with Hewitt, including the 2002 Wimbledon final in straight sets, said Argentina's stunning success had given the South Americans the confidence to beat either the Netherlands or the Slovak Republic in September to vault the country into only its second-ever Cup final.

With its awesome depth including five players in the world's top 15, Hewitt had no doubt Argentina was capable of going one better than its 1981 final loss to the US.

"Playing away is always going to be tough, but they're as good a team as anyone still left in the competition," Hewitt said.

"They have the depth even if Nalbandian or Coria or whoever is injured, and they have the opportunity to play on a lot of different surfaces depending on the guys they pick in the team."

Hewitt attributed his sluggish performance to his draining Wimbledon campaign after a three-month absence from the tour while he recovered from foot surgery and broken ribs and also to Friday's intense four-set win over Coria in the opening match of the tie.

"My ball striking wasn't as good as I would have liked and he played solid from the start," he said.

"Whenever I got small opportunities, I didn't take them. I lost a lot of service games when I had game points on my serve and there must have been three or four games when I had break points and I wasn't able to convert those either.

"I was a little bit flat out there. I just wasn't moving my feet as well and on that court you have to move your feet well."

Neither Hewitt or Australian captain John Fitzgerald offered excuses for their team's exit from the competition and both insisted Friday's verbal warfare with Coria had no bearing on the last two days' proceedings.

Hewitt and Wayne Arthurs also lost Saturday's doubles in straight sets to Nalbandian and Mariano Puerta as the fallout from Hewitt's bitter rivalry with the Argentines overshadowed the on-court action.

The Australians, though, particularly Fitzgerald, felt Hewitt's slanging match with Coria hadn't affected the home team's linchpin.

But despite both camps claiming there was no bad blood lingering between the teams, Hewitt won't be inviting Coria to his wedding this week.

"I don't rate the guy as a bloke at all and I definitely wouldn't go and have a beer with the bloke," Hewitt said after Coria had offered similar sentiments about his Australian arch-rival.

Fitzgerald also maintained his and Mark Philippoussis's "mutual" decision not to play the former Wimbledon and US Open finalist was still the right one, even though it meant Hewitt and Arthurs were lumped with both singles and doubles duties against the Argentinian warriors.

Philippoussis declared himself unavailable as he continues to recover from an ankle injury suffered at Wimbledon and spent the weekend easing his way back playing Team Tennis in America.