Taiwan yesterday fell to a 2-0 defeat after the first day of their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I relegation playoff on the hard courts of the Yang Gu Tennis Park in South Korea.
South Korean world No. 44 Chung Hye-on took 1 hour, 58 minutes to see off the challenge of Taiwanese world No. 552 Wu Tung-lin 7-6 (7/3), 6-1, 6-1 in the first singles rubber.
While Wu converted the only break points he created, Chung converted six of 13, winning 101 of the 166 points contested to give the hosts a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five playoff.
In the second singles rubber, the hosts’ Kwon Soon-woo defeated Taiwanese world No. 240 Jason Jung 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7/4) in 2 hours, 49 minutes.
The South Korean world No. 208 saved six of 12 break points and converted six of 17, firing down eight aces as the visitors fell to within a loss of relegation to Asia/Oceania Group II.
In today’s must-win doubles rubber, South Korea’s Lee Jea-moon and Lim Yong-kyu are to take on Taiwanese duo Wu and Yu Cheng-yu.
In the Asia/Oceania Group II promotion playoff, Pakistan took a 2-0 lead over Thailand after the first day’s singles rubbers.
In the World Group playoffs, Japan took a 2-0 lead over Brazil as Yuichi Sugita defeated Guilherme Clezar 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (7/5), before Go Soeda won a nail-biter 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (1/7), 6-4 over Thiago Moura Monteiro.
“I felt a lot of nerves at the start and lost my way a bit, but I managed to hang in,” 33-year-old Soeda told Agence France-Presse. “He put me under real pressure and I had to dig in at times. I’ve tried a lot of things to improve the mental side of my game, so I was happy to get through it.”
Japan have had to win playoffs for the past two years to retain their spot in the World Group.
“Today was a big step toward achieving that, but we have to keep our feet on the ground,” Japan captain Satoshi Iwabuchi said. “We still have to finish the job.”
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