AS.com

First blood to Spain as David Ferrer won the first match in the Davis Cup final, held in the O2 Arena in Prague. Spain took early control of the final after Ferrer, ranked number five in the world and the leading Spanish player, beat Radek Stepanek, number 37 on the ATP tour and number two in the Czech team, in straight sets (6-3, 6-4, 6-4) in a match that lasted two hours and 58 minutes. "It's an important win because it takes a bit of the pressure off the next player," Ferrer said. However, despite realtively straghtforward win, Ferrer stressed afterwards how it had been far from easy: "It wasn't a walk in the park at all, killing the game off was hard. I was starting to get a bit nervous near the end, and he was coming up to the net. I found it tough going."

Nicolás Almagro, ranked eleventh on the ATP tour, is next up and will face world number six and the Czech Republic's number one seed Tomas Berdych.