ARAG WORLD TEAM CUP

Fernando Gonzalez clinched the Round Robin tie for Chile, Tuesday at the Rochusclub, coming back to defeat Swede Robin Soderling 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Chile, the winner of back-to-back Championships from 2003-04, maintained its spot atop the Red Group standings with an unblemished 2-0 record in its ties this week. Chile will meet Argentina in its final Round Robin tie on Thursday.

Gonzalez, the highest-ranked player appearing in the 2007 ARAG ATP World Team Championship, recovered from a frustrating ending to the first set that resulted in a double fault and a smashed racquet. He broke Soderling to go up 6-5 in the second set and successfully held serve to get back on track.

Following a rain delay that halted play for about an hour, Gonzalez quickly produced the tie-clinching win with one break of serve proving enough to dismiss the Swede.

Earlier in the day, Nicolas Massu and Jonas Bjorkman battled for two hours and 12 minutes through the first two sets before Massu bageled the Swede in the third. Bjorkman won the second-set tie-break, but Massu needed just 20 more minutes to finish the match, 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-0.

"I hadn't reckoned that the match would take that long," said Massu. "I simply couldn't adjust to Bjorkman's returns of my serve, played always into the corner. That's why I couldn't make my own game. In the third set the surface was slower and thus suited my baseline game better. In general, I am satisfied with the match because I played well in the third set."

In the doubles match, postponed to Wednesday morning, Bjorkman and Thomas Johansson outlasted Gonzalez and Massu in the Match Tie-break, 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 (Match TB).