Two very interesting Davis Cup semifinal ties were played over the weekend in Moscow and Buenos Aires, but while the clash between Russia and the U.S. was restricted proceedings on court, the other semi between Argentina and Australia had all the ingredients of a thriller: dramatic surprises and plenty of emotion.

Anyone who has ever attended a Davis Cup tie knows that the crowd at these events is a law unto itself in the usually well-mannered tennis world. This is particularly true at ties played in South America where the encounters are likened to war between the protagonists and where anything goes, from shouting before, after and during points, to antics which are clearly designed to anger the home team's opponent. It smacks of a lack of the acceptable norms of sportsmanship.

The tie between Argentina and Australia at the weekend was no different and the Argentine players had one goal in mind: beating their opponents, particularly Lleyton Hewitt.

The controversial Aussie was fully aware that the hosts would be gunning for him and thought long and hard before deciding to travel to Argentina to play as he decided not to let his country down. He let his opponents see that he wasn't afraid of them or the crowd, but he took no chances and arrived in Buenos Aires with three bodyguards.

Hewitt has had a few unpleasant encounters with Argentinean players over the years and he has become an unwelcome guest in Argentina.

Fact is that Hewitt has made himself unpopular in many places around the world because of his behavior on court and especially after two most unsavoury incidents.

During the U.S. Open a few years ago, he accused an African-American line judge of consistent bad calling against him in favour of his African-American opponent James Blake.

In another incident, Hewitt called the chair umpire "spastic" after disputing a call and raised the ire worldwide of organisations for the developmentally disabled who demanded he should either apologise or be banned.

Hewitt said he was misunderstood and donated several thousand dollars to various groups to calm tensions.

Despite these past PR disasters, the Argentineans had only tennis in mind and played and won fairly.

The crowd was noisy and emotional as ever and followed the que of conducting maestro Diego Maradona who was seated in a courtside box, but they never crossed the thin line between zealous patriotism and unsportsmanlike behaviour.

The crowd sat on the edge of their seats and the entire 14,000 leapt for joy and threw blue and white confetti onto the court as soon as the last ball was hit and victory was theirs.

It was achieved because Davis Cup is about home advantage, so it was also not surprising that the crowd could be heard cheering for American players Andy Roddick and James Blake who were playing thousands of miles away in Moscow.

They knew that an American win over Russia would have determined that the final would be played in Buenos Aires in December, but to their dismay, the Russians won and Argentina will have to play the final far, far from home in Moscow.

This was no damper for the celebrants, however, who cheered as their country reached a second Davis Cup final after 25 years.