Lleyton Hewitt and Paul Hanley came from two sets down to win their doubles match yesterday and secure Australia a 3-0 victory over Taiwan in their Asia/Oceania Zone Group I first-round Davis Cup tie.
The Australians beat Taiwan's Jimmy Wang and Lu Yen-hsun 2-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in the three-and-a-half-hour match on hardcourt at the Yangming Tennis Stadium in Kaohsiung.
Wang and Lu led in the first two sets with their impeccable team work, but Hewitt -- ranked 22nd in the world -- led his team to victory with powerful serving and capitalized on Taiwanese unforced errors.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Australia progress to the second round in April, when they will host the winners of the Kazakhstan-Thailand tie.
Meanwhile, heavyweights the US, Russia, France and Argentina moved closer to the Davis Cup quarter-finals on Friday as their outclassed rivals were cursed by illness and absent stars.
The US, the defending champions and with a record 31 titles under their belts, opened up a 2-0 lead over Austria in Vienna while Russia, deposed by the US last year, also won both their rubbers against a weakened Serbia.
PHOTO: AFP
France, nine-time champions, were 2-0 in front against Romania while Argentina were almost perfect against a Great Britain side who were hopelessly out of their depth in Buenos Aires.
Andy Roddick survived four hours on "the worst" of all clay courts to put the US into the lead over Austria.
"Is it the worst I've played on in the Davis Cup? Absolutely," raged the American after snatching victory over Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3.
James Blake then saw off Stefan Koubek 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 to put the US closer to a quarter-final clash with either Romania or France.
In Moscow, double champions Russia took advantage of a Serbian team forced to keep Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic under wraps because of flu.
Serbia were also without Janko Tipsarevic who was suffering from an ankle injury.
World No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko still needed five sets, however, to see off Viktor Troicki, the world No. 114, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.
Earlier, world No. 8 Mikhail Youzhny battled from a set down to clinch a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win over Nenad Zimonjic, the world No. 689 and who was drafted in to replace fever-hit Djokovic, despite himself running a high fever.
"It went up and down all the way," Davydenko said. "I started confidently but lost concentration in the second set. In the third I was in control again but the fourth was almost a carbon copy of the second."
In Sibiu, Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga gave France a 2-0 lead over Romania.
Gasquet eased past Victor Hanescu 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 7-5 before Australian Open runner-up Tsonga defeated veteran Andrei Pavel 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in just over three hours to mark a successful Davis Cup debut.
Britain, playing without No. 1 Andy Murray who controversially opted to skip a testing Buenos Aires clay court examination, were predictably crushed.
World No. 9 David Nalbandian saw off world No. 235 Jamie Baker 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 before Agustin Calleri, ranked 41, defeated Alex Bogdanovic, the world No. 188, 6-3, 6-1, 6-1.
"It was no problem at all," Nalbandian said.
Britain's skipper John Lloyd admitted that Argentina were in a different class.
"They were too good," Lloyd said. "David Nalbandian was absolutely brilliant and Calleri was a level above Bogdanovic."
In Braunschweig, Lee Hyung-taik defeated Florian Mayer 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 6-7 (7/9), 6-3 in a marathon rubber to take South Korea level at 1-1 with Germany.
Philipp Kohlschreiber, the world No. 28, eased past An Jae-sung, ranked 301 places below him, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
The South Koreans are playing in the World Group for the first time since 1987.
"I'm happy that I won for my country. Now I am exhausted," said Lee who has only won one match on clay in the last two years.
The Czech Republic were comfortably in control against Belgium in Ostrava where Tomas Berdych beat Kristof Vliegen 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 and Radek Stepanek saw off Steve Darcis 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5).
At Ramat Hasharon, Israel and Sweden were level after Dudi Sela beat Jonas Bjorkman 7-6 (10/8), 6-3, 6-1 before Thomas Johansson saw off Harel Levy 6-1, 6-1, 6-3.
In Lima, Spain, who are without world No. 2 Rafael Nadal, opened up a 2-0 lead over Peru when Nicolas Almagro swept past Matias Silva 6-3, 7-5, 6-0 and Tommy Robredo downed Ivan Miranda 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.
Silva, the world 652, was a late replacement for Peruvian No. 1 Luis Horna, who pulled out with an injury.
■ PATTAYA OPEN
AP, PATTAYA, THAILAND
Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland dashed local hopes on Friday when she beat Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-2, 6-3 to qualify for the semi-finals of the US$170,000 Pattaya Women's Open at the Dusit Resort Hotel.
Employing rock-solid defense and attacking sharply when opportunities arose, world No. 21 Radwanska took one hour, 24 minutes to win the quarter-final match.
The 18-year-old Pole said Tamarine's mistakes allowed her to breeze to a 5-0 lead over her Thai opponent in the first set, but then her rival player improved, making the second set more of a challenge.
Radwanska, the heavy favorite to win at this beach city this week, will play the semi-final against Ekaterina Bychkova of Russia, who saved a match point to beat compatriot Vesna Manasieva 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3 in a marathon two-hour, 31-minute match.
In another quarter-final match, seventh-seeded Jill Craybas of the US had few problems in downing Andreja Klepac of Slovenia 6-4, 6-4 in one hour, 26 minutes.
Craybas will play Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, who advanced to the semi-final by beating fourth seed Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan 6-1, 7-6(4).
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier