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Taiwan poised for Davis Cup victory

Taiwan took a 2-1 lead over Thailand after winning the doubles match in the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group I clash yesterday.

Chen Ti and Yi Chu-huan defeated Thai brothers Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

On Friday Chen beat Weerapat Doakmaiklee 7-6 (7/1), 6-7 (10/12), 6-1, 6-3, but teammate Lee Hsin-han lost to Danai Udomchoke, a gold medalist in last year's Asian Games in Doha, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.

The reverse singles take place today.

The matches in Taipei were overshadowed by a dispute between Taiwan's No. 1 player Lu Yen-hsun, who was left out of the tie, and the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association.

Lu, ranked 90th, was replaced by world number 1,010 Yi Chu-huan after demanding better protection of players' rights from the association.

Lu's agent said the player's demands had been rejected.

Another top Taiwanese player Wang Yeu-tzuoo, ranked 157th, was forced to withdraw from the matches due to injury.

Meanwhile South Korea took a decisive 3-0 lead over Kazakhstan yesterday and advanced to the second round of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1.

South Korean pair Lee Hyung-taik and Jun Woong-sun trounced Alexey Kedriouk and Dmitry Makeev 6-1, 7-5, 6-2.

On Friday, South Korea's No.1 Lee Hyung-taik, ranked 54th in the world, brushed aside Syrym Abdukhalikov 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 and Jun Woong-sun defeated Kedriouk 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.

South Korea will face the winner of the match between Uzbekistan and India on April 6-8 in the second round.

Leander Paes and Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya kept alive India's hopes of making the second round by beating Uzbekistan's pair yesterday.

The Indian duo beat Farukh Dustov and Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 in two hours 53 minutes to reduce the arrears for the visitors to 2-1 in favor of Uzbekistan.

The rubber went with serves until the ninth game, when the visitors broke Istomin's serve to take the opening set in 40 minutes.

The teams traded breaks halfway into the second but the Indian pair again made their greater accuracy count to go two sets up after one hour 17 minutes on court.

However, the hosts, spurred on by the home crowd, refused to surrender and broke Sipaeya's serves in the third and the fourth sets to level the score at two sets all after two hours 21 minutes of playing.

But in the deciding set the Indians were in command again breaking Istomin's serve on two occasions to take the set and the match, while the hosts managed to reply only once on Paes' serve.

On Friday Istomin had given the hosts the lead with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 win over Vivek Shokeen in the opening rubber.

Dustov made it 2-0 for Uzbekistan beating Karan Rastogi also in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.
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