Saturday, day 2, time for the doubles. As Gilles Muller seemed to be unbeatable for Portugal on day 1, Portugal seemed to need a win on that rubber to have a double chance on Sunday (to be honest, they would have a single chance on the match without Muller...). On the other hand, beating the Portuguese Gil and Tavares would quite likely Luxembourg make to win the tie and to face Italy abroad in the second round.
Portugal started the match with playing incredible doubles tennis and winning the first four games of the first set. Though Luxemburg slightly recovered and even managed to re-break the guest once, Portugal were able to save the lead and win the first set 6-4. To be honest, Portugal never was able to get back to that kind of doubles tennis they showed at the very beginning of the match.
There was just little thrill in second set, whose quality of doubles tennis was definitely lower than in the first set. Nevertheless, nearly any server had problems to win his game. No break point, no deuce - but in one game. Frederico Gil was the unlucky guy of the second set and got broken in the sixth game of second set.
Nevertheless, the third set was really a great worth-watching. Gil and Scheidweiler were the first to serve for their country, both acted quite nervous but were able to save their serve. Afterwards, the match looked to go on like it went in second set: the serves were just too good for the receiving team to find a way to put their opponents to serious problems for the next games. Thus it was very surprising that Scheidweiler got in trouble in the sixth game: after leading 30:0, he lost three in a row and trailed 30:40. Very bad situation for a double fault, but Mike comitted one. Portugal was in the lead and after Tavares won his serve easily again, Gilles Muller needed to win the game at 2-5, own serve. The crowd already thought about the fourth set, as the Portuguese took the first two points and were able to get a break and set point at 30:40 (and apart from that, were able to serve for the set afterwards anyway). In nine of ten matches, Portugal would have won the third set and managed to win the fourth or at least the fifth one to win the match. But on Saturday, 11th, 2006, in Esch/Alzette, Luxemburg, it was time for the tenth match - and the incredible and superb Luxembourgian Muller-Scheidweiler-show. Point by point, they managed to improve their game now. Muller saved the break point and decreased the score difference to 3-5. The Portuguese just seemed to have a very little lack of concentration now and were heavily punished for that: first they faced double break point against Gil's serve (Luxemburg converted the first one) and last but not least, when the scoreboard showed 5-5 with Tavares on the mount, the Portuguese managed to make a double double fault at 15:15. Though the guests saved these two break points, they faced a third one - and Luxemburg said thanks! 6-5 Luxemburg, Muller to serve now - needless to say that a world-class player like him takes this chance.
On the one hand, the Portuguese did not seem to be impressed of the third set that much and started quite well in the fourth set by winning their own serve quite easily. But on the other hand, the hosts showed great doubles tennis now, especially driven by an incredible Gilles Muller. At the score of 1-1, they broke Tavares's serve and managed to do that against Gil in the fifth and Tavares in the seventh game to complete the match with an impressing fourth-set 6-1 roll over the French.