Federer, Wawrinka beaten by Kazakhs Golubev and Nedovyseov in Davis Cup

Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka lost the doubles match to Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov on Saturday, giving Kazakhstan a 2-1 lead over Switzerland in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.

Golubev and Nedovyesov never trailed after breaking Federer in the opening game and completed a 6-4, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (6) victory.

The Kazakh pair converted their first match point when Wawrinka could not control Golubev’s powerful return of Federer’s serve.

“Against those guys you have to play almost the perfect match. I’m happy that we did today,” Golubev said.

Federer and Wawrinka, the Australian Open champion, won gold in doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and were loudly supported by the 16,000 spectators in the indoor Palexpo arena.

“Pretty excited, especially that we beat the Olympic champions. It makes it special,” said Nedovyesov, who is ranked No. 76 in singles.

In Sunday’s reverse singles, No. 3-ranked Wawrinka is scheduled to play the 56th-ranked Mikhail Kukushkin before Federer takes on the 64th-ranked Golubev, who beat Wawrinka in Friday’s opening singles.

The winner plays Britain or Italy in the semifinals in September.

The Swiss were a service break up in the second set, but the Kazakhs broke back when Wawrinka served for the set at 5-3.

The visitors clinched a two-set lead when Federer sent a half-volley wide as he approached the net.

Federer and Wawrinka served out the third set after breaking in the fifth game.

Federer’s serve came under pressure again in the fourth set, trailing 0-30 when down 6-5 before forcing the tiebreaker. Switzerland held a set point but Federer’s backhand lob drifted long.

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Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others

Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.

As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.

Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.

“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”

Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.

“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”

Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.