Thomas made his debut against the United States in the
1995 semifinals, losing to both Pete Sampras and Todd Martin.
Although he made a slow start in Davis Cup,
losing three of his first four matches, Thomas
Enqvist has begun to establish himself as a
fitting successor to the long line of first
class Davis Cup competitors from Sweden.
In year 1997 he has added another
three wins to his Davis Cup record, beating
Lorenzo Manta
and then Marc Rosset to seal
victory over Switzerland in the First Round,
and then beating
Grant Stafford
as part of Sweden's narrow 3-2 win over South Africa in
the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, Thomas suffered two consecutive
setback: the first against a ruthless
Wayne Ferreira. The second
defeat was versus Renzo Furlan in
the semi final against Italy. Finally, Thomas won a non
decisive match versus Omar Camporese.
Swede is another time in final. Thomas will surely play with
Jonas Bjorkman...
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Text from DavisCup by NEC
In 1996, Enqvist played well against India in the
quarterfinals but it was in the semifinals
against Czech Republic that the Swedish No. 1
really made his mark. In the opening singles
against Petr Korda, Enqvist was dominant,
frustrating the talented Czech to give Sweden
a 1-0 lead. In the fourth match against the
big serving Daniel Vacek, Enqvist played
nervously early in the match, struggling with
his serve and his return of serve but pulled
himself together and won both the match and
the decisive point in five gruelling sets.
Then in the final Enqvist built on that maturity by
beating first Arnaud Boetsch
in straight sets on the opening day and then taking a dramatic
five-set fourth rubber
over Cedric Pioline to set up the even
more dramatic fifth rubber in one of the most exciting Davis Cup
finals ever.