India’s undefeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes continued their winning streak in the doubles yesterday, giving their country a 2-1 lead against Taiwan in their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group 1 clash.
The Indian duo scored a hard-fought victory against Yi Chu-huan and Yang Tsung-hua 6-4, 7-6 (7-0), 6-7 (2-7), 6-2 at the Yangming tennis center in Kaohsiung.
On Friday, Taiwan’s tennis ace Lu Yen-hsun stormed past Rohan Bopanna 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-2, while India’s Somdev Dewarman beat Ti Chen 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in their first ever meeting.
The reverse singles will be played today.
Last year, India reached the World Group play-offs for the first time since 2005, but lost to Romania.
In Nonthaburi, Australia took a grip on their Asia-Oceania zone Group 1 Davis Cup clash with Thailand, winning the doubles rubber to grab a 2-1 lead.
Lleyton Hewitt wasn’t called on by captain John Fitzgerald despite the Australians losing one of the singles matches on Friday, which left the tie finely poised.
Instead, untried left-handers Chris Guccione and Carsten Ball were handed responsibility and they repaid Fitzgerald’s faith with a gutsy 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-4 win over Thai twins Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana.
“Our guys both served very well, they both have left-hand serves, their techniques and their rhythm is so good they can serve like that for a long time,” Fitzgerald said. “So you only get a very small number of chances against their serve. That’s what I hoped would happen and it did.”
On the opening day, Thai star upset Australian rookie Brydan Klein after Hewitt had earlier made short work of.
In the reverse singles today, Hewitt will take on Danai Udomchoke with Klein, or possibly the higher-ranked Guccione, starting against Kittipong Wachiramanowong.
Meanwhile, Satoshi Iwabuchi and Takao Suzuki of Japan won their doubles match yesterday to wrap up a 3-0 series win over China in their Asia-Oceania Group 1 clash.
Iwabuchi and Suzuki defeated China’s Zeng Shaoxuan and Zhang Ze 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 as Japan advanced to the the third round of the regional promotion/relegation playoff.
On Friday, Argentina, Russia and Croatia swept their singles to be on the verge of reaching the Davis Cup quarter-finals.
Former champions the US, Germany and France needed comebacks to even their ties, while all the drama in the politicized Sweden-Israel match at Malmo was on the court rather than off it.
Also, Spain looked like starting their title defense in the blockbuster first-round tie with Serbia yesterday after strong winds that damaged the temporary stadium in Benidorm subsided to allow repairs.
Argentina led the Netherlands 2-0, as did Russia over Romania and Croatia against Chile.
The Argentines, whose decade-long unbeaten run at home was ended by Spain in last year’s final, were given a scare when Juan Ignacio Chela took nearly four hours to beat unheralded Jesse Huta Galung 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2.
Juan Monaco responded to the home side’s shaky start by rubbing out Thiemo De Bakker 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7/1).
“Juan [Ignacio Chela’s] win calmed my nerves and I was able to play solid tennis from the start,” Monaco said. “I hope we can win the tie tomorrow in the doubles.”
Argentina should, but not in front of their usual raucous crowd.
After Juan Martin del Potro made himself unavailable and David Nalbandian withdrew sick, only about 1,500 attended the normally sold-out 14,000-seat Parque Roca Stadium.
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